The Cold War

During the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union had worked together to defeat Nazi Germany. But in the years after the war ended, the former allies became bitter rivals. The two superpowers did not fight each other directly; instead, they tried to get other countries to support their political and economic systems. The Soviet Union supported the establishment of Communist governments that would answer to Soviet leaders. The United States spent billions of dollars to rebuild Western Europe and sent military advisers and troops to many places in order to counter the threat of Communist expansion. The period of U.S.-Soviet tensions, from 1947 until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, is known as the Cold War. This book in the MAJOR U.S. HISTORICAL WARS series examines the events that led up to the Cold War. It discusses the political and military strategies that the world's two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, employed, and provides information about key people, battles, and events. The policies of the Cold War had an enormous impact on the modern world.