The History of~The Cold War

One of the longest ongoing wars in the history of mankind. A war between 2 nuclear powers, 2 powers that can destroy the world 100 times over.

This was called *The Cold War"*.

Now, this war has nothing to do with cold air or even the cold virus.

The reason why it's called the Cold War is that the 2 powers (The United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies) never directly fought each other on any large scale.

Because if they ever did, it would mean the end of Mankind.

This is going to be the first of a multi-part page of how The Cold War went down.

## Prelude to War

It all began in the Summer of 1945 after the Allies and the Soviets defeated the Nazis and the leaders of the nations *Harry Truman, Winston Churchill,*and *Josef Stalin* gathered to Potsdam, Germany for a conference in how they're going to deal with Germany now that the Nazi Regime has fallen. Turman also has the dilemma to use the new and untested Atomic Bomb, and he was going to tell Stalin about the Bomb as well.

But, Stalin already knew about it as he had a spy infiltrate the US Atomic Bomb Project.

In August of 1945, The time was now to strike Japan (the last standing Axis Power). The USA was going to use the A-Bomb on the nation since they captured airfields on the islands the Japanese previously occupied.

On August 9th, the USA dropped "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, 3 days later they dropped "Fat Man" on Nagasaki. But the day before Fat Man was dropped, the Soviets declare war on Japan, the next day Soviet forces invade Japanese Occupied Manchuria. The combination of the Atomic Bombs and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria had made the Japanese surrender, and on September 3, the Japanese officially surrender. World War 2 was now over.

In the times following shortly after the war, the victors of the war (namely the USA and the USSR) made an agreement that they hold onto the nations that have occupied during the war. The West also said to Stalin to have his occupied nations such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, and Albania to hold elections.

But, Stalin went back on this particular promise and had established Communist puppet governments in the areas the Soviets occupied, this would be called the "*Eastern Bloc"*. This worried the west as they believe that this would divide Europe. Churchill even calls this the *"Iron Curtain"*.

Now that Germany is divided and in the middle of the democratic West and communist East along with its Capital of Berlin being divided, the time has come to repair the War-torn continent.

By 1947, Truman would introduce what is called the "*Truman Doctrine"* which would make democratic citizens see everything Communism as "evil", later that year he would also introduce *"The Marshal Plan"* as he would approve $13 Billion (adjusted for inflation, that would be almost $190 billion today) to rebuild Western Europe.

But not everything was going good in Europe. Greece which was in a state of Civil War for over a decade up to this point was being fought once again. It was between the Greek Royal Forces (aided by Great Britain and the USA) and Communist insurgency. Eventually, the Greek Royal Army defeated the communist rebels.

But, there was the dilemma surrounding Iran as well. The North was occupied by the Soviets and the British occupied the South, once WW2 was over the British pulled out of the country, whereas the Soviets wanted to stick around. But the west was all in favor that the Soviets should also pull out of Iran as well, having no other choice the Soviets agreed to withdraw from Iran, not wanting to risk another war.

By 1948, the USA, Britain, and France were progressing with their occupation of Germany quite nicely (even bringing back the original Deutsche Mark). They decided to have their respective occupation zones to unite, thus creating *"West Germany"*

Around the same year, people who lived in the Communist "East Berlin" began crossing over into the Democratic "West Berlin", which was a no-no to the communist occupiers. This is when Stalin set up anti-aircraft weapons which began the *"Berlin Blockade".* Preventing food and other supplies from getting into West Berlin.

Truman responded by having American Military Aircraft to fly in West Berlin, thus the *"Berlin Airlift"* had begun where it would supply West Berlin with the food and other supplies its citizens needed.

This standoff would last for several months and it would depend on what would happen. The West had to wait until the Soviets threw the first punch, and the Soviets had to wait until the American Military aircraft posed a threat.

Both sides didn't want a fight as both were still weary from WW2. Not to mention that the USSR had 30 times the manpower, and the west had 30 times the firepower as the USA had a nuclear arsenal. But in June in 1949, the blockade ended basically without any trouble.

This would be the event that would trigger the Cold War. After the Blockade, both sides of the Iron Curtain were busy. The Soviets tested their first Nuclear Weapons on August 29, 1949. The West would also form their peace alliance known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (or NATO for short).

That will do it for Part 1. In Part 2 (click here) will talk about the Peace Organizations. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.