The recent victors of German fascism, the USSR and the United States in the 20th century, more than once became fierce opponents. Including in real wars. Chief among them is the 45-year Cold War. Shots did not always sound on it, but there was a direct danger not only of the Third World, but also of a global universal catastrophe.
Greetings from Orwell
The term "cold war" was not invented by a politician or a military man. The expression was written by the writer George Orwell, who penned Animal Farm, Animal Farm, and 1984. He published it in an article entitled "You and the Atomic Bomb", published just a month after the end of the Second World War.
Iranian incident
The date of the start of the global military and ideological confrontation of the participants in the process is determined by most historians on March 5, 1946. Speaking in the American Fulton, Winston Churchill called for the fight against the spread of communism with the help of the alliance of the English-speaking countries.
The reason for Churchill's harsh words was Stalin's refusal to immediately withdraw his troops from Iranian territory. But the main reason was the natural reluctance of the recent allies to allow the expansion of the influence of the Soviets to the East. A year later, the British ex-prime minister was supported by US Secretary of State George Marshall and President Harry Truman. They presented a plan of assistance to European countries that suffered from fascism in exchange for governments without communists, and a deterrent doctrine, the basis of which would be the encirclement of the USSR with unfriendly military bases.
Berlin stumbling block
Moving from words to deeds, yesterday's allies began to actively form military-political organizations. And from the 55th, an alliance called NATO began to actively oppose the Warsaw Pact of the socialist countries with headquarters in Moscow. The apotheosis of their initial confrontation is the appearance in 1961 of the Berlin Wall, which divided the eastern (pro-Soviet) and western regions of the German capital for almost 30 years. Together with blocks of states.
The not very cold wars, which split Korea and Vietnam, added gun oil, cartridges and ballistic missiles to the rivalry. And also the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when Soviet submarines with missiles on board were already standing off the coast of the United States, awaiting the command "Start!"
Short word "Afghan"
The seventies could well be considered a decade of constant negotiations, peace initiatives, mutual disarmament and, finally, the end of the arms race. If in December 1979 the USSR had not sent the 40th army to Afghanistan and displaced President Amin, who did not suit him. By doing this as a logical reaction to the appearance of American missiles in the area of its border with Turkey.
The United States responded with extensive and long-term assistance to the irreconcilable Afghan mujahideen, a boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and yet another "cold snap". However, the sides had enough reasons for dissatisfaction with each other even without the war in Afghanistan. The overthrow of President Allende in Chile, the wars with the participation of Soviet and Cuban soldiers in the former African colonies of Portugal, the exercises of the Warsaw Pact countries "Shield-79" are recognized as episodes, and very hot, by historians.
We are done with the war
The eighties began with the much larger offensive exercises Shield-82, the destruction of a South Korean passenger liner that flew into the USSR, and Reagan's declaration of the Soviet Union as an "Evil Empire." They continued with a boycott by almost all socialist countries of the American Olympics-84, an attack by the US army on Grenada and a brazen landing on Red Square of a sports plane under the control of the German Matthias Rust.
And they ended with the return of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, a change in the political leadership in the USSR, the fall of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe, the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the termination of the existence of not only the Warsaw Pact that was holding back NATO, but the Soviet Union itself. The final outcome of the Cold War was summed up on December 25, 1991, without hiding a victorious triumph, by US President George W. Bush.
