THE COLD WAR
When the United States fought in World War II, the U.S. and Russia fought on the same side. Russia controlled many nearby countries. Russia, and the countries it controlled, were called the Soviet Union. The U.S. and the Soviet Union did not trust each other. After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became involved in the Cold War.
During the Cold War, the main concern of the United States was the spread of communism. Communism is a type of government in which the government plans the economy and controls most of the resources. Also, in most communist countries, the government is controlled by one political party. Russia and all the countries in the Soviet Union were communist. Other countries like China and North Korea were also becoming communist. The U.S. wanted to stop other countries around the world from becoming communist.
The Cold War did not have soldiers from the U.S. and the Soviet Union fighting each other in battles. Instead, the U.S. and the Soviet Union had diplomats and spies who used information and threats against each other.
In 1953, Dwight Eisenhower became the 34th President of the United States. He served from 1953 - 1961. Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general in World War II. While he was President, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were building large armies in case they went to war. The U.S. and the Soviet Union also began trying to send rockets into space. In 1957, the Soviet Union became the first country to send a satellite into space. In 1969, the U.S. became the first country to land a person on the moon.
The Cold War ended in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed.
Atlantic Ocean
United States
This map shows the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
CHAPTER 11: AMERICAN HISTORY 1900 - 2001
Soviet Union
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1945. Courtesy of the National Archives.
Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., on the Moon. Courtesy of NASA.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services