The Cold War Begins

Following World War II, the two remaining superpowers—the United States and the Soviet Union—entered the Cold War, an ideological contest in which each side competed for supremacy through the use of economic aid, military assistance, technology, and propaganda. U.S. foreign policy was focused on containment, preventing the influence of the Soviet Union and the ideology of communism from spreading beyond Eastern Europe. A major test of each nation’s resolve to defeat the other came with the Soviet Union’s blockade of West Berlin in 1948–1949. The United States emerged victorious and with its Western Bloc allies formed the mutual defense organization known as NATO. The Soviet Union responded by forming the Warsaw Pact with the Eastern Bloc countries of Eastern Europe.            All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/14-1-the-cold-war-begins            Welcome to A Journey into Human History.    This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story.       The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.     Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/1-introduction    Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a Creative Common Sense production.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/a-journey-into-human-history--5860966/support.