the Cold War was a conflict that began at the end of the Second World War in 1945 the end of the war marked the end of the supremacy of Europe two powers took over the United States in the Soviet Union leading two bloc's with their own alliances and satellite states the so-called Western bloc capitalists and the Eastern Bloc communists why was it called the Cold War because neither of the two bloc's ever took direct actions against the other it wasn't a normal war although there were derivative conflicts and subsidiary Wars the reasons for this conflict were essentially ideological political economic and for propaganda purposes the Soviet Union financed and supported revolutions and socialist governments while the United States gave open support and propagated destabilization and coos in Latin America the history of the Cold War starts before 1945 specifically in 1917 after the triumph of the Russian Revolution from which Russia emerged as the first socialist country this was one of the first events that provoked considerable erosions in russian-american relations the Soviets argued that capitalism must be overthrown by force and be replaced by a communist system the American capitalists after the outbreak of the revolution helped the white army during the Russian Civil War finally the Red Army troops led by Trotsky claimed the victory but let's go back to 1945 after the end of the Second World War we need to remember that the Soviet Union and the United States had been allies to stop Hitler's plans before the war was over they met in Yalta Josef Stalin Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt as heads of government of the USSR the United Kingdom and the United States respectively the Yalta Conference was followed by the Potsdam Conference with Germany already totally defeated and Hitler dead these conferences involved the division of Germany into four zones one part for each country and one part of France issues of disarmament demilitarization the return of territories annexed by Germany the hunting down of Nazi war criminals and the creation of the United Nations were also discussed the Soviets after the war had the facto occupied the areas of Eastern Europe that they had defended and liberated to stop the Soviet expansion the United States with the marshall plan helped western europe and the western part of germany to get back to normal with the Marshall Plan the Americans gave enormous economic aid to Europe the plan was operational for four years from 1948 the United States objectives were to rebuild the areas destroyed by the war eliminate trade barriers modernize European industry and make the continent prosperous again all these objectives aim to prevent the spread of communism which had a large and growing influence in post-war Europe the detractors of the Marshall Plan argue that this was an example of u.s. economic imperialism the United States promoted the founding of NATO the North Atlantic Treaty Organization an intergovernmental military alliance sealed in 1949 the organization was a system of collective defence in which the member states agreed to defend any of their members if they are attacked by an external faction the rival nations to counteract the strengths of this alliance signed the Warsaw Pact in 1955 finally Berlin Europe and the world were divided by the Iron Curtain this expression was coined by Churchill in 1949 the red army of Mao Zedong was proclaimed winner of the Chinese Civil War after defeating the Kuomintang nationalists who were supported by the United States the Soviet Union immediately establishes an alliance with the victors who had created a new communist state called the People's Republic of China the following year Starlin was caught by surprise by the participation of US troops in the defense of South Korea that had been invaded by the North Korean communists the ceasefire came in 1953 Stalin had died that same year he will be succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev let's go back to the Iron Curtain in Europe in the five years after the Second World War a total of 15 million people emigrated from east to west this fact caused the Soviet bloc to carry out an effective immigration blockade in 1950 there was a very tight control of passports so that people can go from one block to the other the border in Berlin a city that was divided was a sieve and many people left the communist side to go to the capitalist side this led to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 we must remember that Germany was divided after the war into Germany's the German Federal Republic with its capital in Bonn and the German Democratic Republic with its capital in Berlin this division of the world into two bloc's was maintained because of the risk of the two powers annihilating each other in a nuclear war this forced both sides to exercise great caution in the most conflict of areas the conflict nearly erupted but only once after the overthrow of the military leader Batista and Cuba by Fidel Castro the United States tried to carry out an invasion of Cuba but failed in 1962 the so called the Missile Crisis occurred when President Kennedy punished Cuba with a blockade of the Soviet ships that were carrying missiles that were directed against the United States at the last moment Khrushchev head of the party and the Soviet government gave in and the ships changed course the US had also entered the Vietnam War which in the end turned out to be another heart setback in American history where they experienced failure exhaustion and frustration this conflict confronted the u.s. and the government of South Vietnam on the one hand against North Vietnam of the communist guerrillas that acted in South Vietnam on the other the war also ended up extending to Laos in Cambodia the Cold War was also espionage reciprocal inspections conferences crises and diplomatic solutions and let's not forget the space race a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union that led to a Display of power and muscle the Russians put the Sputnik satellite into orbit in 1957 the Americans immediately responded with their Explorer 1 in 1958 it was a matter of prestige when the Russians sent their first man into space the Americans took their revenge by sending a manned spaceship to the moon in 1980 Reagan won the promising to increase military spending and take on the Soviets wherever it was necessary both Reagan and the newly elected British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher constantly denounced the communist ideology Reagan called the Soviet Union the evil empire and predicted that communism would be left on the ash heap of history in early 1985 Reagan's visceral anti-communism developed into a posse known as the Reagan doctrine in which in addition to containment he expressed the rights of the u.s. to subvert an overthrow existing communist governments finally in 1989 the Berlin Wall Falls which means the definite opening up of the borders between the two bloc's the dismemberment of the communist bloc and the end of the Iron Curtain and the Cold War after the fall the tension between the old communist countries and the capitalist countries would end up being diluted in fact at present most of the states the former communist bloc have embraced the policies and ideologies of the capitalist world [Music] [Music]