The Conflict Between America and the Soviet Union

The Cold War was a conflict that took place after World War II between the two most powerful countries being the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) or Soviet Union and the United States of America (USA), and their allies. During this period from the 1940’s to the 1990’s both of the superpowers engaged in strong rivalry in things such as weapons development and propaganda.
      Though both nations were allied during WWII against Nazi Germany and Japan, but both nations strongly disagreed over many topics especially each others political ideology .The USSR was the first communist state to emerge, it was founded in 1917 after the overthrow of the Russian Empire by the revolutionary leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Communism is the political ideology founded by Karl Marx in which there is a classless society in which all the people have equal economic advantages and the government controls the means of production.
    The US sought to contain communism and prevent it from spreading to other nations although this was not successful it certain situations such as the Communist Takeover in China and Cuba.
       During the Cold War there were other conflicts such as the Korean War and Vietnam War. The Korean War was started when the South Koreans along with there American counterparts invaded North Korea but the North Koreans were able to repeal the invading forces and continued south on a track towards Seoul, the South Korean capital. They conquered Seoul only to have the US to intervene and push back the North Korean army and push them back to the Yalu River but soon the Chinese forces intervened on the side of the North Koreans. This war waged on for 3 more years until an armistice was signed on July 27, 1953.
     The Vietnam War was another conflict that took place during the Cold War. This conflict began in 1959 and did not conclude till 1976. This was an effort of the Northern Vietnamese, led by Ho Chi Minh, to reunify the country into one. The war was fought for many years from as far back President Eisenhower’s administration from 1956 to 1960, but the US did not enter the war until 1963 after Lyndon B. Johnson took over presidency from JFK.
      This war however would not be successful for Americans or Southern Vietnamese as in 1973 US president Nixon pulled out US troops and in 1976 the capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, fell to the North Vietnamese and reunified their nation into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. This led to the communist government in Laos and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
      Other conflicts that took place were the space race. The Soviets launched the first satellite known as Sputnik on October 4, 1957 and the first man into space named Yuri Gagarin on the date of April 12, 1961.