Portal:Cold War

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The Cold War Portal

The Cold War was the protracted geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle that emerged after World War II between capitalism and communism, centering around two opposing global superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States, and their military alliance partners. It lasted from about 1947 to the period leading to the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991. Between 1985 and 1991 Cold War rivalries first eased and then ended.

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The Cold war was maimly the assasination of the rusian prime minister which succedded beacause america is alot smarter then dumb russi and they invented the robo dog which had heat seeking missiles on it which located the russian prime minister and killed him.

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Selected article

Titan II rockets launched 12 U.S. Gemini spacecraft in the 1960s.

The Space Race was an informal competition between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted roughly from 1957 to 1975. It involved the parallel efforts by each of those countries to explore outer space with artificial satellites, to send humans into space, and to land people on the Moon.

Though its roots lie in early rocket technology and in the international tensions following World War II, the Space Race effectively began after the Soviet launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957. The term originated as an analogy to the arms race. The Space Race became an important part of the cultural and technological rivalry between the USSR and the United States during the Cold War. Space technology became a particularly important arena in this conflict, both because of its potential military applications and due to the morale-boosting psychological benefits.

After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became locked in a bitter Cold War of espionage and propaganda. Space exploration and satellite technology could feed into the cold war on both fronts. Satellite-borne equipment could spy on other countries, while space-faring accomplishments could serve as propaganda to tout a country's scientific prowess and military potential. The same rockets that might send a human into orbit or hit a specific spot on the Moon could send an atom bomb to a specific enemy city. Much of the technological development required for space travel applied equally well to wartime rockets such as Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Along with other aspects of the arms race, progress in space appeared as an indicator of technological and economic prowess, demonstrating the superiority of the ideology of that country. Space research had a dual purpose: it could serve peaceful ends, but could also contribute to military goals.

The two superpowers each worked to gain an edge in space research, neither knowing who might make a breakthrough first. They had each laid the groundwork for a race to space, and awaited only the starter's gun. (More...)

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Two opposing geopolitical blocs had developed by the 1960s as a result of the Cold War. Consult the legend on the map for more details.

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Selected biography

Igor Gouzenko (1919-1982) was a cipher clerk for the Soviet Embassy to Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. He defected on September 5, 1945 with 109 documents on Soviet espionage activities in the West.

Gouzenko's defection exposed Joseph Stalin's efforts to steal nuclear secrets, and the then-unknown technique of planting sleeper agents. With World War II over, the "Gouzenko Affair" helped change western perceptions of the Soviet Union from an ally to an enemy, and is often credited as a triggering event of the Cold War. [1]

The evidence provided by Gouzenko led to the arrest in Canada of a total of 39 suspects, of which 18 were eventually convicted, including Fred Rose, the only Communist Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons and Sam Carr, the Communist Party's national organizer. A Royal Commission of Inquiry, headed by Justice Robert Taschereau and Justice Roy Kellock was conducted into the Gouzenko Affair and his evidence of a Soviet spy ring in Canada. Even more importantly it alerted other countries around the world, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, that Soviet agents had almost certainly infiltrated their nations as well. (More...)

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Related portals

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Cold War bibliography

Because the number of works for the Cold War is large, a separate page has been created.

Cold War Bibliography

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Quotes

“ From Stettinin the Balticto Triestein the Adriatican "iron curtain" has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharestand Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow. ”

--Winston Churchill (1874-1965), former United Kingdom Prime Minister.

"Sinews of Peace" address March 5, 1946 at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri

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Did you know...

...that the Doomsday Clock has been maintained since 1947 by the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago?

...that the X Article, formally was titled "The Sources of Soviet Conduct?" The article describes the concepts that would become the bedrock of American Cold War policy and was published in Foreign Affairs in 1947?

...that during the Cold War, India tried to maintain its neutrality and was one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement?

...that Stanislav Petrov was the Soviet Army lieutenant colonel who conceivably averted a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1983?

...that the Burya was a trisonic, intercontinental cruise missile designed by the Lavochkin design bureau?

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Cold War topics

v • d • e Cold WarParticipants NATO · Non-Aligned Movement · People's Republic of China · Warsaw Pact1940s Yalta Conference · Potsdam Conference · Gouzenko Affair · Iran crisis · Chinese Civil War · Greek Civil War · Restatement of Policy on Germany · Truman Doctrine · Marshall Plan · Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia · Tito-Stalin split · Berlin Blockade1950s Korean War · First Indochina War · 1953 Iranian coup d'état · 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état · Uprising of 1953 in East Germany · First Taiwan Strait Crisis · Poznań 1956 protests · Hungarian Revolution of 1956 · Suez Crisis · Sputnik crisis · Second Taiwan Strait Crisis · Cuban Revolution · Kitchen Debate1960s Congo Crisis · Sino-Soviet split · U-2 Crisis of 1960 · Bay of Pigs Invasion · Cuban Missile Crisis · Berlin Wall · Vietnam War · 1964 Brazilian coup d'état · U.S. Invasion of Dominican Republic · South African Border War · Transition to the New Order · Bangkok Declaration · Laotian Civil War · Overthrow of Sukarno · Greek military junta of 1967-1974 · Cultural Revolution · Prague Spring · Goulash Communism · Sino-Soviet border conflict1970s Détente · Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty · Black September in Jordan · Cambodian Civil War · Ping Pong Diplomacy · Four Power Agreement on Berlin · 1972 Nixon visit to China · 1973 Chilean coup d'état · Yom Kippur War · Strategic Arms Limitation Talks · Angolan Civil War · Mozambican Civil War · Ogaden War · Sino-Vietnamese War · Iranian Revolution1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan · Polish Solidarity Movement · Central American Crisis · Able Archer 83 · Strategic Defense Initiative · Invasion of Grenada · Romanian Revolution · Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 · Singing Revolution · Fall of the Berlin Wall · Revolutions of 19891990s Breakup of Yugoslavia · Dissolution of the USSRSee also Bricker Amendment · Glasnost · Iron Curtain · McCarthyism · Operation Condor · Operation Gladio · Perestroika · Soviet espionage in USEstablishments Central Intelligence Agency · Comecon · European Community · KGB · StasiRaces Arms race · Nuclear arms race · Space RaceIdeologies Capitalism · Communism · Stalinism · Trotskyism · MaoismForeign policy Brezhnev Doctrine · Ulbricht Doctrine · Carter Doctrine · Containment · Domino theory · Eisenhower Doctrine · Johnson Doctrine · Kennedy Doctrine · Nixon Doctrine · Ostpolitik · Peaceful coexistence · Reagan Doctrine · Rollback · Truman Doctrine · Marshall Plan Timeline of events · Portal · Category

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To-do listfor Portal:Cold War: edit · history · watch · refresh

Create articles on the Cold War regionally: Cold War in Latin America, Cold War in Europe, Cold War in Africa, Cold War in East Asia, Cold War in South Asia, Cold War in Oceania, Cold War in South East Asia, and Cold War in the Middle East. These can draw out regional dynamics that the main article will necessarily have to overlook.—thames 21:28, 30 March 2006 (UTC) --taken from the Cold War Article Discussion page, changed here.