Cold War

## Political world map

Map of communist countries as of 1988

The **Cold War** was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies. It started after World War IIW. Beside ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence, the Cold War also caused the Space Race. Following the formation of the Mars-7 Alliance, the growing partnership led to the end of the Cold War, turning once enemies into friends.

## History

After the defeat of Nazi GermanyW and Imperial JapanW in World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the dominant superpowers controlling the global order. The Cold War, as it was known, saw the rise of proxy conflicts between the two powers, such as the Korean WarW and Vietnam WarW, as well as ideological battles between the free market democracy espoused by the United States and the Marxism-LeninismW espoused by the Soviet Union. Perhaps most importantly was the Cold War's effect on the development of technology, particularly in space exploration. This period of technological development was known as the Space Boom.

The Soviet Union in the 1960s saw the upper hand in the Space Race, with milestones including the first artificial satellite, the first animal in space, and the first man and woman in space. In 1969, these advances culminated in the Soviet Moon landing, where cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first human to step foot on the Moon. This shocked and demoralized the United States, which had endured the 1960s with unrest, ranging from domestic racial conflict to the protracted Vietnam War. As a result, the United States stepped up the development of their space program, leading to an intensification of the Space Race well into the 1970s. Many conflicts on the ground were stalled or defused in favor of the focus towards space, such as the Soviets pulling out of Afghanistan in the early 1980s in order to focus on their space program.

One result of this was the development of self-sustaining habitats on the Moon, such as the Jamestown base operated by NASA, and the Zvezda base operated by the Soviet space program (later Roscomos). The Cold War during the 1970s and 1980s would soon see its military tensions and proxy conflicts leave Earth and spread to the Moon, with the infamous Battle of Jamestown Base of 1983 nearly sending the world into nuclear holocaust. While tensions were de-escalated, the signing of the Lunar Peace Agreement in Malta in 1984 would effectively divide the Moon into two zones controlled by the Americans and the Soviets.

Upon the election of Gary Hart as President of the United States, the nation's foreign policy became more hands-off. Likewise, the Premier of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev would open up the country to foreign investment and incorporate aspects of a mixed-market economy, allowing the Soviet Union to prosper and thrive well into the early 1990s while simultaneously expanding its sphere of influence, particularly in countries like Turkey, Chile, Greece, and Mexico. While hardliners in the US reacted negatively to these developments, the thaw in Cold War tensions did see the world become more multipolar, with an emphasis towards space age technology as exemplified by the Space Boom. Non-aligned countries such as China and India began entering the space race, with China opening a lunar base in 1987 and India opening its first space station. The private sector also played an important part in the Space Boom, with companies such as the American Helios Aerospace and the Soviet Kuragin working towards the extraction of Helium-3 on the Moon for clean nuclear fusionW on Earth.

Despite this thaw, espionage continued between the US and the USSR with regards to their space programs, and a level of competition remained. One example of this was the 1994-95 Race to Mars, which included the American fusion/space startup Helios Aerospace as a third-party competitor. While it seemed that the United States won the race to Mars with their landing of the Sojourner 1 spacecraft, further ongoings on Mars revealed that neither the Americans, Soviets, or Helios could claim to be the first on Mars; in reality, North Korea was first on the red planet, having sent a uncrewed probe to Mars that in-fact contained two cosmonauts, Lee Jung-Gil and Park Chol. Due to this, American President Ellen Wilson had to negotiate with Soviet Premier Gorbachev to defuse tensions, as North Korea was under the protection of the Soviet Union, and it would seem that the capture of Lee Jung-Gil could be seen with hostility by the North Koreans.[*Citation needed*]

## Major events

### Race to space

*Main articles: Space Race, Race to the Moon, and Race to Mars*
### Panama Canal crisis (1979)

*This section is currently incomplete. You can help by expanding it! Click here to add more.*
*See also: Panama Canal Zone*

### Berlin crisis (1982)

*This section is currently incomplete. You can help by expanding it! Click here to add more.*

## Behind the scenes

Certain events in OTL's Cold War diverged or never occurred due to the continued focus on space race technology:

* The Soviet-Afghan warW never occurred, which did not drain Soviet resources and manpower in the 1980s. It is entirely possible that these events stymied the development of Al-Qaeda or future instability in the region. Interestingly, Osama Bin-LadenW appears in a news montage at the beginning of Season 2.
* The Soviets adopting a mixed-market economy appears to have allowed it (and the Warsaw PactW) to survive into the 1990s and the 21st century, effectively nullifying events such as German reunification or the gradual de-communization of Eastern Europe.
* Various countries that are considered partners/allies of the US in our world aligned with the Soviet Union in the 1980s-1990s, such as Turkey, Chile, Greece, Mexico and many other countries around the globe.
* Despite being a part of the Soviet bloc, North Korea (likely due to its development of ballistic missiles) remains an international pariah.
* Americans (such as real-estate mogul Donald TrumpW) managed to invest in the development of properties in the Soviet Union, which suggests open travel between the two countries by the early 1990s.

## See also

* Jamestown crisis
* Space Race

## References

1. ↑ Bonus Video: Another Giant Leap: 1984-1992 - Clean Nuclear Energy (1987)
2. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 2, Episode 1: "Every Little Thing" (Press review)
3. ↑ Bonus Video: Another Giant Leap: 1984-1992 - Mexico's new president (1988)
4. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 3, Episode 1: "Polaris" (Press review)