Cold War - United States and Western European Countries Versus the Ussr and Eastern Communist Countries

Many historians had not been able to agree exactly when the Cold War had started but they can agree that did start around the end of World War II around 1945. This started from the end of World War II until the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990's. After Japan and Germany were defeated, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States began to look at each other as competitors. This was mainly because the USSR didn't want to work with the United States and Western Europe in 1948.

The Cold War was a conflict between Communist nations: United States and Western European countries versus the USSR and Eastern Communist countries.

Now although a full-scale "east vs west" never really break out, we use the metaphor of a "cold" war instead of "hot" war - using guns and bombs. This war was fought in different places such as outer space, newly independent nations at home (Africa), and in neutral states. It was the result of the conflict that was fought primarily on economic, philosophical, cultural, social and political levels.

One hotspot of the conflict was Berlin, Germany, dealing with the Berlin Wall. For me to grasp the meaning of this was a movie that I had recently watch even though I had no idea that it had been out was, called Doomsday on FX. In the beginning of the movie there are people that were trying desperately to get out of Scotland due to an infectious virus that kills the body in days. After the introduction of this movie, it showed a map of Scotland, Germany, and England ... I think, describing the iron wall that was built to isolate Scotland. This reminded me of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall separated West Germany that was controlled by West Germany, their allies: France, England, and United States from East Germany.

I read articles and mainly saw that one of the consequences this war had on the United States' society was a psychological effect. Psychological effects of the cold war had the civilian population subjected to air-raid drills and persuade people to build personal bomb shelters. Although this concern faded at that time, the awareness of the war is still here. If you look around in large buildings, like public schools, i.e. Dr. Ronald E. McNair School - Public School 5 in Brooklyn, New York, has fallout shelter signs all over. To keep this awareness high, this is depicted in pictures of dead bodies in barbed wire on the Berlin Wall and in movies like The Day After, Red Dawn and War Games. I checked these movies out and still make me uncomfortable.

In my view, the other consequence of this conflict on the United States' society was also the sensibility in a way some Americans viewed the war and themselves was communism, ideology, economical and power rivalry. I know for a fact this still going on...in Africa. The west opposed the communism and called itself the "Free World", which on