Answer:
Explanation:
The Cold War was a conflict that lasted for decades between the communist countries of the world, led by the Soviet Union, and the non-communist countries of the world, led by the United States. It was a conflict in which both sides tried to dominate the world with their ideology. It is called “cold” because it was not an actual “shooting war” between the US and the USSR.
The Soviet Union was a communist country. Communists believed that their ideology was superior to that of the democratic, capitalistic countries of the West. They believed that communism would eventually take over the world and they wanted to speed that process as much as they could.
The United States was strongly opposed to communism. It felt that communism was economically inefficient and that it trampled on people’s fundamental human rights. For these reasons, it wanted to prevent the spread of communism.
After the end of WWII, the Cold War started. The US and the USSR tried to influence other countries to take their side. Sometimes, wars ended up being fought, as they were in Korea and Vietnam, to try to prevent the spread of communism. At other times, the competition between the two ideologies took the form of athletic competition or competition to land a man on the moon. The purpose of such competition was to show which side had a superior system.
The Cold War ended in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed.
