3/11/13 Overview of the Cold War:

      The cold war began soon after World War Two with the division of Germany among the allied forces. Eastern Germany was given to Soviet Russia and Western Germany was mainly under American control. From East Germany eastward the Soviet Union began to spread its communist influence on Europe and into Asia. Influenced by the requests of Winston Churchill, America sends aid to East Germany and attempt to stop Soviet advancements through Europe. The Soviets eventually place a blockade on East Germany, which America resolves by sending supplies through various airlifts. As tension continues to rise in Germany, Soviets in West Germany build a wall to separate Germany, known as the Berlin Wall.
     Nuclear missile tensions were also a large part of the Cold War, as towards the late 1940s the Soviets successfully develop their own nuclear weapons in response to the USA's. Cuba eventually undergoes a communist revolution, and forms an alliance with the Soviet Union. Exiles from this revolution are trained by the American CIA to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro. This fails, and is known as the Bay of Pigs. Eventually The USSR begins supplying WMDs to Cuba, sparking a 13 day missile crisis which is successfully resolved through a US navy blockade of Cuba.
   Tension was also built in the space race, with Soviets successfully developing a satellite, the had an advantage over America and made the American people very frightened of the possibilities the Soviets now could exploit. America later proposes the idea of a Strategic Defense Initiative, a space system designed to destroy any and all nuclear missiles in space, as to render WMDs useless.
   Furthermore the Cold War was built up over the Korean and Vietnam wars, in which the United States fought to prevent communist takeover of both countries. America fought to stop the spread of communism, and partially succeeded in Korea, where the nation was divided and only a half of the country became communist, though failed and was utterly disgraced in the Vietnam war.
   The Middle East was another front of the Cold War, in which Iranians held American civilians hostage for over a year, and were unable to be rescued by the USA. Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviets against Islamist militants, the militants being supplied by the US.
  Finally the Cold War winds down with the collapse of the Berlin wall, allowing Germany to reunite, and the dissolving of the USSR. As separate republics of the USSR demanded their independence, and communism is overthrown in Russia, the USSR eventually disbands, leaving the United States of America as the victor of the Cold War.