Cold War

1950s were an extremely important period in the world history. In spite the fact that the World War II had already ended the turbulence and conflicts in international political relations as well as the domestic policy within the US still caused numerous troubles to the extent that the events that had occurred during this period practically shaped the future of the US and the entire world. In fact, 1950s were the years of important changes on both national and international levels and these changes and new trends were not always positive. In desolate contrast, some of the trends typical to 1950s truly threatened to the democratic development of the US and the rest of the world. On the other hand 1950s became an extremely important point in the history of the civil right movements in the US as well as in the entire world.

The Cold War was a decades-long struggle for global supremacy that pitted the capitalist United States against the communist Soviet Union. Although there are some disagreements as to when the Cold War began, it is generally conceded that mid- to late-1945 marks the time when relations between Moscow and Washington began deteriorating.

This deterioration ignited the early Cold War and set the stage for a dynamic struggle that often assumed mythological overtones of good versus evil. At the close of World War II, the Soviet Union stood firmly entrenched in Eastern Europe, intent upon installing governments there that would pay allegiance to the Kremlin. It also sought to expand its security zone even further into North Korea, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Similarly, the United States established a security zone of its own that comprised Western Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. From the long view of history, it is clear that both sides were jockeying for a way to secure their futures from the threat of another world war, but it was the threat that each side perceived from the other that allowed for the development of mutual suspicion. It was this mutual suspicion, augmented by profound distrust and misunderstanding that would ultimately fuel the entire conflict.

Interestingly, for the first few years of the early Cold War the conflict was more political than military. Both sides squabbled with each other at the UN, sought closer relations with

...