"There was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers, but they each supported opposing sides in major regional conflicts known as proxy wars."
Study of the political and military tensions that emerged after World War II between the Western powers and the Soviet Union and its allies, which lasted from approximately 1947 to 1991.
Origins of the Cold War: Understanding the factors that led to the start of the Cold War and the ideological divide between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Nuclear weapons and Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD): The development and proliferation of nuclear weapons during the Cold War, and the strategies of deterrence and retaliation.
Arms race: The competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to develop and deploy advanced military technologies, including missile defense systems, space technologies, and other weapons.
Proxy wars: The use of third-party conflicts as a means of advancing strategic interests, including the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and various conflicts in Africa and Latin America.
Espionage and intelligence-gathering: The role of intelligence agencies on both sides of the Cold War, including the CIA, KGB, and other spy agencies, and their impact on Cold War policy.
Diplomacy and negotiation: The various attempts to negotiate an end to the Cold War, including the role of summit meetings, arms control agreements, and other diplomatic efforts.
Military strategy: The various military strategies employed by both sides during the Cold War, including containment, deterrence, and various strategies for conventional and nuclear warfare.
Military technology: The development of new military technologies, including ballistic missiles, spy planes, submarines, and radar systems.
Cold War hotspots: An examination of the various flashpoints and conflicts that emerged during the Cold War, including crises in Cuba, Berlin, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Impact of the Cold War: The legacy of the Cold War, including its impact on international relations, global politics, and national security policies.
Nuclear Arms Race: A competition between the two superpowers to develop better and more powerful nuclear weapons.
Proxy Wars: Wars fought in third-party countries but fueled and supported by either the Soviet Union or the United States.
Espionage: The use of spies by both sides to gather information and intelligence about each other's military capabilities and strategies.
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI): A proposed missile defense system by the United States that aimed to protect against incoming ballistic missiles from Soviet Union.
Space Race: A competition between the two powers to achieve superiority in space exploration, including the launch of the first satellite and manned spaceflight.
Nuclear Detente: An attempt by both the United States and the Soviet Union to reduce the nuclear threat by negotiating arms control agreements.
Cultural Diplomacy: An attempt by both sides to win over the hearts and minds of people worldwide through movies, TV shows, and other cultural exchanges.
De-Stalinization: An ideological shift in the Soviet Union aimed at denouncing the cult of Stalin and his policies, which was a response to the rise of Khrushchev.
Military Bases: Both the powers developed and maintained military bases around the world to protect their interests and exert influence over the countries in which they were deployed.
Arms Control Agreements: A series of negotiations designed to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles and ensure that both powers did not surpass a certain threshold of nuclear arms.
"The struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means, such as psychological warfare, propaganda campaigns, espionage, far-reaching embargoes, sports diplomacy, and technological competitions like the Space Race."
"The Western Bloc was led by the United States, as well as a number of other First World nations that were generally liberal democratic but tied to a network of often authoritarian, Third World states, most of which were the European powers' former colonies."
"The Eastern Bloc was led by the Soviet Union and its Communist Party, which had an influence across the Second World and was also tied to a network of authoritarian states."
"The Soviet Union had a command economy and installed similarly Communist regimes in its satellite states."
"United States involvement in regime change during the Cold War included support for anti-communist and right-wing dictatorships, governments, and uprisings across the world, while Soviet involvement in regime change included the funding left-wing parties, wars of national liberation and revolutions around the world."
"As nearly all the colonial states underwent decolonization and achieved independence in the period from 1945 to 1960, many became Third World battlefields in the Cold War."
"They accomplished this most notably through the formation of NATO, which was essentially a defensive agreement in 1949."
"The Soviet Union countered with the Warsaw Pact in 1955."
"The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia to suppress the Prague Spring of 1968."
"Major crises of this phase included the Berlin Blockade of 1948–1949, the Korean War of 1950–1953, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Suez Crisis of that same year, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, and the Vietnam War of 1964–1975."
"Both superpowers competed for influence in Latin America and the Middle East, and the decolonizing states of Africa, Asia, and Oceania."
"By the 1970s, both sides had started making allowances for peace and security, ushering in a period of détente that saw the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and the 1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China that opened relations with China as a strategic counterweight to the Soviet Union."
"The sixth phase of the Cold War saw the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introducing the liberalizing reforms of glasnost ("openness", c. 1985) and perestroika ("reorganization", c. 1987)."
"The fall of the Iron Curtain after the Pan-European Picnic and the Revolutions of 1989, which represented a peaceful revolutionary wave with the exception of the Romanian Revolution and the Afghan Civil War (1989–1992), overthrew almost all of the Marxist–Leninist regimes of the Eastern Bloc."
"The Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control in the country and was banned following the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt that August."
"The Cold War has left a significant legacy."
"Its effects include references to the culture during the war, particularly with themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare."
"The Cold War is generally followed by the categorization of international relations since 1989 and post–Cold War era to underline its impact."
"The United States was left as the world's sole superpower."