Explain the following statement with reasons: Cold War began.

Answer:

The statement is true because:

• After the Second World War the USA and Soviet Russia became superpowers with opposite ideologies: capitalism and democracy against communism.
• Soviet Russia set up communist governments in Eastern Europe; Churchill spoke of an ‘Iron Curtain’ (1946). The USA answered with the Truman Doctrine (1947) and the Marshall Plan.
• Distrust grew over Germany (the Berlin blockade, 1948) and over the atom bomb, leading to an arms race.
• Military alliances NATO (1949) and the Warsaw Pact (1955) divided the world into two blocs.

This tension without direct war between the superpowers is called the Cold War.