The Cold War
The Cold War was essentially an arms race which stemmed from opposing policies and the threat of two dominant countries holding nuclear weapons. Following the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the dominant powers. Though allies during the war, each country held diametrically-opposed policies. The United States, attempting to contain Soviet ideologies, decided to enact a strategy known as "containment." Basically, the United States would restrict the Soviet Union from expanding Communist ideology. Wherever a communist movement was at hand, the United States would support the more agreeable party militarily and politically. Knowing the world was on the verge of nuclear war, the United States constructed plans for an even more devastating bomb. The bomb, was the Hydrogen bomb or the H-bomb. The first H-bomb was tested in 1952 and the Soviet Union followed. The arms race had produced an ever-increasing fear of possible annihilation and as a result, people built bomb shelters in their backyards and homes. The conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union also extended beyond an arms race. Specifically, conflicts such as the Korean War, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Throughout the Cold War era, pro-American leadership, such as President Fulgencio Batista of Cuba fell. Pro-Communist and Soviet-backed leaders and movements such as Fidel Castro and the People's Republic of Korea rose to power. The Soviet Union, however, would finally collapse in 1991. The cause of which was political turmoil as well as economic drought.