The Cold War

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World War II eliminated the pre-war “Great Powers,” and the US and USSR remained the only superpowers. Despite the fact that they were allies during World War II, they held opposing views on critical domestic and international issues. The ensuing struggle between these superpowers influenced virtually every significant development in world affairs. The result was a polarized world of rivalry and tension that was solidified by the two military alliances: NATO and the Warsaw pact. Thus the time period from the mid-1940s to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 became known in history as “The Cold War”. Its typical features were massive conventional and nuclear arms spending, propaganda, espionage, proxy wars and the space race. The period included times of heightened tensions like the Berlin Blockade (1948-1949), the Korean War (1950-1953), the Berlin Crisis (1961), the Vietnam War (1959-1975) and especially the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. There were also times of relative calm known as détente.

Web Sites

• The National Archives (UK)
• The Cold War Museum
• University of San Diego
• Yale Law School
• BBC History
• Wikipedia
• Yahoo

Catalog

Search the library's catalog for Cold War.

Databases

Enter Cold War in these databases:

• Student Resource Center Gold
• Proquest