Cold War Facts For Kids: Explore Curious Details On World War!

The Cold War was one of the 'off the wall' falling outs of the 20th century. World War I and II may have affected the history of our world to an extensive degree, but even those were not a match for the Cold War.

The duration and the convolution that took place between the two super powers the USA and the USSR, were insurmountable. The conflict was between the democracies of Western Europe and the communist countries of Eastern Europe.

While the United States led the Western World with its allies, the Russian-dominated Soviet Union led Eastern Europe with its 15 republics.

The irony is that the Cold War was never officially announced by either Super Powers. They continued to fight indirectly in many proxy wars.

This major ideological and political struggle took place just after World War II. Like Orwell said, 'A peace that is no peace' was generally the state of the Cold War.

In the open, everything was dandy, but behind closed doors, all bets were off. Such was the Cold War between the Soviet Union with its Eastern bloc and the United States with its Western bloc.

The Soviet Union and the United States were the two superpowers engaged in the Cold War, but the collapse of the Soviet Union marked the end of the Cold War. The United States then emerged as the sole superpower in the world.

Many more intriguing facts await in this article. Read on for some more interesting Cold War facts!

Afterward also check American civil war facts and British empire at its height.

Cold War History

The sowing of seeds for the war began as early as 1917, when the Russian Revolution took place. When the Bolsheviks, a subversive Marxist faction founded by Lenin, rose to power.

As promised to their people, they withdrew from all World War I dealings, including the withdrawal from the Allies. The Western allies of World War I were France, Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United States, which, after the Soviet Union's withdrawal, responded in kind by isolating Soviet Russia in all international matters.

And the Bolsheviks brought on capitalism, prompting them to bring forth an international revolution. This created a big uproar in the United States, thus brewing a split between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Their disagreements about the economic and political systems of Western democracies and the Soviet Union, like socialism versus capitalism, free trade versus economic independence, and state planning versus private enterprise, all led to the beginning of the Cold War.

During the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union had to set aside their differences and become allies to bring down Nazi Germany. Despite their partnership, the tension between them could have been sliced with a knife.

By the time the war ended, they were itching for a war of their own. That was when the Allied Powers, which were the countries, United States, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, decided to divide Germany into two zones.

East Germany was given to the Soviet Union, which controlled it with an iron fist, while the other three Allies shared West Germany, working to rebuild the country as a capitalist democracy.

The city of Berlin in East Germany was also divided. West Berlin, half of Berlin, was part of West Germany.

The first phase of the Cold War began when the Second World War ended in 1945. In 1949, the United States formed NATO, a unified military command to resist the Soviet presence in Europe.

In return, the Soviet Union formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization consisted of 28 European countries and two North American countries. This phase faced many crises, like the Hungarian Revolution, the Berlin Crisis, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Berlin crisis of 1961 saw the construction of the Berlin Wall to prevent the people of East Berlin from fleeing from the Soviet Union's dominion to West Berlin. The Berlin Wall acts as a symbol of the Iron Curtain that divided the countries of Europe between communism and democracy.

Berlin and the Berlin Wall were considered the heart of the Cold War.

The nuclear arms race was an arms race competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare during the Cold War. They developed nuclear weapons during the early cold war years.

In 1962, there was suspicion between the USA and the USSR. The world demanded a ban on nuclear weapons, which would prevent the start of a nuclear war. Instead, in this period, a 'Hot Line' was installed between the White House and the Kremlin.

The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union when nuclear conflict entered the scene. The whole thing looked like a farce, with many miscalculations and miscommunications between the two parties.

This was also one of the most smoking points of the Cold War, as it was the closest they came to the risk of nuclear war.

A secret deal was forged in which the Soviets withdrew the Cuban missiles in return. American Jupiter missiles were withdrawn from Turkey and Italy.

During the Cold War, 1947-1991, there was the Eastern Bloc, a group of socialist states under the influence of the Soviet Union, with its communist ideology. And then there was the Western Bloc, a coalition of many countries that allied with the United States, members of NATO, who opposed the Soviet Union and vindicated anti-Communism.

While the Eastern Bloc was often called the Second World, the term 'First World' belonged to the Western Bloc, and the remaining non-aligned countries were the 'Third World'.

The Soviet Union, instead of initiating any direct military confrontation, sent Soviet troops to preserve communist rule. They sent a military force to East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan. At the time of the Cold War, it is estimated that the size of the Russian troops was about five million.

Why was it called the cold war?

Because they did not declare war at all, not even once, but the feud went on for about 45 years! George Orwell used the term 'cold war' in his essay 'You and the Atomic Bomb', which was published in the magazine 'Tribune' on October 19, 1945.

However, the term is said to have been coined by financier Bernard Baruch, who described US-Soviet relations as 'Cold War' in a speech.

There were many intelligence gathering activities during the Cold War as they depended on agents in their pursuit. There were Soviet agents from the KGB, while the United States pulled in their espionage from the CIA or Cambridge Five.

The Korean War was a war fought between North Korea and South Korea between 1950 and 1953. North Korea was backed by China and the Soviet Union. South Korea was supported by the United Nations, especially the United States.

In September 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became the Soviet leader by becoming the First Secretary of the Communist Party.

The Vietnam War (1955 - 1975), which lasted for twenty years, was between North Vietnam and Southern Vietnam. Because the Vietnam War was also a proxy war, the United States' defeat was seen as a blow to the country's pride. While the North was supported by communist countries, the South was backed by anti-communist countries.

How long did the cold war last?

The Cold War lasted about 45 years, between 1946 and 1991. A long and tense conflict that is said to have begun even before 1946, in 1917 to be exact. It was not over until the Soviet Union detonated.

Open your eyes wide because an overview of the Cold War is coming right up!

In 1945, to end the war without a high-priced invasion of Japan, the US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. An atomic bomb named 'Little Boy' was dropped on Hiroshima. Even then, Hirohito did not bow down to Truman’s demand for surrender. So, the US dropped a plutonium implosion-type bomb called 'Fat Man' on Nagasaki.

This, along with the Soviet Union’s announcement of war on Japan, caused the country to back-treat and surrender to the Allies. Thus, World War II ended.

In 1946, after the Second World War, Stalin gave a speech about communism and capitalism and their incomparability. In response, Winston Churchill gives a speech called 'The Sinews of Peace', with a message saying the United States needs to confront the Soviet Union, which has become aggressive, and that an Iron Curtain has befallen Europe.

In 1948, the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia and Truman's Loyalty Program caught Cold War spies. The Berlin Blockade, which lasts about 11 months, started this year. In 1949, NATO was ratified and the Berlin Blockade ended. This was also the year Russia tested its first atomic bomb. And in 1950, the Korean War began.

In 1952, the USA dropped and detonated the first hydrogen bomb, 'Mike'. In 1953, the Korean War ended, and in 1955, the USSR exploded its first hydrogen bomb.

Stalin also died this year. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Soviet Union's brutal treatment of it Even though the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, sang a different song when coming into power, his actions in Budapest proved otherwise, as he had sent troops and tanks to kill people. 2,500 Hungarians died, and about 200,000 refugees fled the place.

In 1955, the Vietnam War began, and in 1961, military aid was sent to Vietnam by the USA. The U.S. and South Vietnam won the Vietnam War, which ended in 1977. In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis took place.

In 1979, the USSR invaded Afghanistan by sending Soviet troops.

After Reagan was elected, a treaty was signed in 1987. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was about the decline in the use of nuclear missiles with ranges of 310.68-3417.54 mi (500-5500 km).

So, the Cold War lasted about 45 years, with no direct military campaigns between the United States and the Soviet Union. Yet many died, and pandemonium was caused. The United States rose as the winner in the free-market capitalist world.

How did the cold war end?

The United States' 40th president, Ronald Reagan, was elected with sole focus by the United States government. It was to win the Cold War! And for the rollback of communist parties, communist governments, and everything communist.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Iron Curtain marked the end of the Cold War. When Mikhail Gorbachev took the reins of power in the Soviet Union in 1985, he was a force of nature that no one suspected. Gorbachev introduced the glasnost and perestroika policies to the USSR.

Glasnost meant allowing western ideas and goods into the USSR and ensuring openness. Perestroika was another initiative offering limited market incentives to Soviet citizens.

Then, many treaties and agreements were signed between the U.S. and Russia. Gorbachev and President Bush met in Malta to discuss the withdrawal of the Soviet military from Eastern Europe, and the future course of the countries' well-being.

After long discussions, the two announced they would work together for the normalization of relations, German reunification, the assurance of dissolving Third World struggles, and the progression of peace and democracy.

For the first time in Nebraska, the USA and Russia tried to turn over a new leaf.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for cold war facts for kids, then why not take a look at miraculous ladybug characters or fly eyes facts.