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What was The Cold War?
The cold war was a series of disagreements between the national governments of the U.S.S.R. and the United States that resulted in a half century power struggle involving espionage and indirect conflict. While resources and lives of both parties were expended during the near fifty year engagement, neither the soviets nor the U.S. openly admitted to any act of surveillance, espionage, or military force on each other’s native soil. According to the perspectives of BBC.com’s Jon Kelly and University of Birmingham’s Scott Lucas, there are six pivotal moments of the 20th century: The Berlin airlift, the Korean war, invasion of Hungary, Cuban missile crisis, space race, and the fall of the berlin wall, that nearly brought Russia and America into another war and shaped the national rivalry that lasts to this day.

THE BERLIN AIRLIFT
The Berlin airlift was the earliest rising tension between the cold war feud. After dividing Germany into four districts controlled by America, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, Russia immediately identified the western alliance’s decision to reunify Germany. The USSR then attempted in 1948 a blockade to halt the spread of the wests capitalist ideals and isolate the German territory. Since Berlin, Germany’s capital was technically in soviet jurisdiction but about 100 miles away from the Russian border, America would lose allies and resources within Germany’s remaining government. The western alliances in response to the blockade, decided to airdrop resources into berlin despite the isolation attempt. According to History.com, America and Eastern Europe transported up to 8000 tons of goods a day. The blockade lasted into 1949 but was clearly considered a failure due to the berlin airlift that in the end delivered 2.3 million tons of resources. While this was primarily a cultural issue rather than an aggressive feud with threat of force, the Berlin airlift is what initially heightened the future threat of each nation and their opposing ideals.

THE KOREAN WAR
The Korean war was a result of two separate governments forming in Korea when the U.S. liberated the southern region from japan during ww2 and the north was liberated by the Soviets. After only a couple years, the two had become entirely separate nations with different perspectives but never acknowledged an actual border. In an effort to unify the country once more the north invaded the south with the assistance of the USSR in 1950. Originally Russia did not intend to get involved fearing a potential war with the US, but after its first successful nuclear bomb test in 1949 the soviets found its courage. Realizing the communist alliance forming in the east the US convinced multiple NATO allies to support south Korea and push back. During the push back to the 38th parallel the US determined that it was worth continuing in an attempt to rid the island nation of communism all together. When US troops neared the Chinese territory, the Chinese responded by sending massive forces to push UN forces back behind the 38th parallel. After a couple more years of act and react between the opposing forces a cease fire was signed in 1953 to maintain the 38th parallel as the nation’s border between the communist north and the unitary republic south. The Korean War was the first opportunity for military action between the USSR and the US to size each other up. At its end the US had achieved an Asian and well strategically place military site which in turn helped lead to Americas large role in the Vietnam war.

INVASION OF HUNGARY
The morning of November 4th, Hungary was invaded by tanks in pursuit of Budapest. They entered the Capital from both north and south. Shots were fired and the invasion began. There were many deaths in this invasion due to the inability to differentiate civilians and targets. Resistance was finally crushed on November 10th and by that time 2500 Hungarians and 722 Soviet troops had been killed and thousands more injured. 200,000 Hungarians fled the country as refugees to Western Europe, the USA, Yugoslavia and Australia. In the aftermath, thousands of Hungarians were arrested, imprisoned and deported to the Soviet Union, often without trial or evidence, and some were executed. A total of 25-30,000 Hungarians and hundreds of Soviet troops were killed throughout the revolution. Imre Nagy was caught by the Soviet secret police as he tried to escape the Yugoslav Embassy, where he was in hiding. After a two year trial, he was executed in 1958. a democracy.

Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was an extremely dangerous confrontation between The United States and Soviet Union that almost engaged nuclear warfare. In the summer of 1962, Nikita Khrushchev secretly decided to install nuclear-armed ballistic missiles in Cuba. When U.S. reconnaissance flights revealed the clandestine construction of missile launching sites, President Kennedy publicly denounced (Oct. 22, 1962) the Soviet actions. He imposed a naval blockade on Cuba and declared that any missile launched from Cuba would warrant a full-scale retaliatory attack by the United States against the Soviet Union. On Oct. 24, Russian ships carrying missiles to Cuba turned back, and when Khrushchev agreed (Oct. 28) to withdraw the missiles and dismantle the missile sites, the crisis ended as suddenly as it had begun. The United States ended its blockade on Nov. 20, and by the end of the year the missiles and bombers were removed from Cuba. The United States, in return, pledged not to invade Cuba, and subsequently, in fulfillment of a secret agreement with Khrushchev, removed the ballistic missiles placed in Turkey.