Cold War: A History From Beginning to End (The Cold War)

by Hourly History

The United States and the Soviet Union did not (and perhaps could not) fight each other directly. Instead, they fought for control and for allies everywhere else.

Communist governments were created in much of Eastern Europe. The Soviet-aligned countries came to be known as the Eastern Bloc and included the U.S.S.R., Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia (until the 1960s).

much of Western Europe was directly aligned with the U.S.: Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, and West Germany. Also, while Austria, France, Ireland, and Sweden were technically neutral, they were certainly more aligned with the Western Bloc. Only Switzerland and Finland managed to remain neutral; Europe was truly divided.

under the Marshall Plan, the United States offered aid to any country needing it, provided that they were not affiliated with Communism.

The goal of covert operations was often regime change. This meant overthrowing the current government and replacing it with one that leaders at the time think will be more friendly to their interests. One such incident has now become famous—the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in 1953.

America was not content to sit idly by and allow matters in Afghanistan to run their course. Rather, they began secretly smuggling valuable, destructive weapons to the group fighting the Soviets: the Mujahedeen. The irony is that the Mujahedeen would in the future provide the historical roots of the Taliban and Al Qaeda; one of their leaders was Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the U.S.