The Cold War

Containment

The USSR is considered to be the ideological enemy of the USA. The foreign policy is to contain the spread of Communism and the USSR’s sphere of influence.
One tool to achieve the aim is the use of military force. In 1949, the USSR detonates its own atomic bomb, prompting the development of the hydrogen bomb, or H-bomb by the US in 1952. The USSR detonated its first hydrogen bomb in 1955, launching the arms race.
The threat of nuclear war impacted the daily lives of ordinary Americans, who practice attack drills, some build nuclear shelters.

Space race

In 1957, the USSR launches the first artificial satellite, Sputnik.
The USA respond in 1958 with Explorer I.
President Eisenhower creates NASA the same year.
The USSR launches the first man in space in 1961.
A few months later the USA follows suit.
In order to stop playing catch-up with the USSR, president John Fitzgerald Kennedy launches the Apollo program that lands a man on the moon in 1969. The USA has won the space race.

The Red Scare and Mc Carthysim

A wave of suspicion takes over America.
In 1947 the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) starts investigating communist influence in the USA.
Soon senator Joseph McCarthy pushes for investigating any individual working for the federal government for subversion.
This led to people having to testify against each other, denounce each other and profess loyalty to the USA.

Armed conflicts

In June 1950, president Truman sends the military to Korea to stop communist forces from the North to take over the country. The conflict ends in 1953 with the country being divided in two.
In 1955, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is created to enforce a military alliance. West Germany is allowed to join and to remilitarize.
In the Western Hemisphere, the US fails to topple the Cuban communist regime in 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 showed how vulnerable the USA can be to attack.
The Vietnam war started as an operation to support the Southern Vietnamese government and lasted 21 years.

Détente

During his presidency (1969-1974), Nixon switches from containment to opening relations with China and signs an arms treaty with the USSR.
As Ronald Reagan becomes president, his policies switch again to a more active containment of the Communist spread with policies to support anticommunist governments and insurgencies, as in Central America.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

Internal problems leads to a waning influence of the USSR in the 80s.
In November 1989, the Berlin Wall falls.
The USSR officially dissolves in 1991, ending the Cold War.