What is the Cold War?
By: Emily Miles
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference was the first war meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. Here the leaders discussed making Germany surrender and their plans for post war. Stalin also agreed to fight against Japan with the other nation and allow free elections. This led to an extension of the cold war because this delayed the cold war because it allowed the superpowers to focus on bringing down Germany, and not the problems they faced between one another. But then once they were done with Germany the problems they had resurfaced. Stalin didn’t allow free elections like he had during the conference, and he was still trying to spread communism through nations. This caused the US and other nations to feel betrayed by Soviets, and also caused the Soviets to be seen as untrustworthy. So this made the other nation set new goals, and this would be to stop Stalin from spreading Communism.
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain barrier made by the Soviet Union to seal itself and European and Central nations off from Western nations. This delayed the Cold War because separating the nation's caused them to continue to want to spread their ideas and this caused the war to last longer because as long as they were trapped, the longer they would try to expand.
NATO and Warsaw Pact
The two sides that had been formed. One side was an alliance of the US, and the other on the side of Soviets or agreed with the idea of spreading communism. NATO was the United States and 11 other western countries, and Warsaw Pact was Soviet Union and other communist nations. This delayed the Cold War because now the European nations has been split up into one side, and all they did now was wait for the other side to do something they disagreed with or didn't like. Then they would take action, but until then both sides sat back and waited for the other to try to spread their government ideas.
Containment
Containment is the isolation of communism. This caused the Cold War to last longer because it made the main goal for the US and other nations to stop communism from spreading, and this goal caused the the war to drag out.
United Nations
United Nations is a bunch of countries that came together to promote peace around the world, and it acted as a mediator for countries. This allowed Soviet Union and US to try to work through their problems and it put the “cold war” on pause making it last longer.
38th Parallel
The 38th parallel was the division of Korea between communist and noncommunist. This made the Cold War last longer because it caused the opposing side to push for the side they weren't on to have the same government as them.
Brinkmanship
Brinkmanship was nations pushing the opposing side to the brink of war. This caused the Cold War to last longer because it prolongs when sides would take action and fight against one another.
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was tension between the Soviet Union and the United States over missile sites in Cuba. This caused the Cold War to last longer because it got another country involved causing more conflicts, and more time for problems.