Increasing tension between America and the West on one side, and the Soviet Union and later, its satellite states, China and other countries on the other side
A war without fighting
An ideological war: liberalism and capitalism versus communism
A war of words, e.g. different definitions of democracy and freedom, and propaganda, e.g. placing blame on each other, winning more gold medals or the race to the moon
Yet a war about power, economic and military power; influence and control over their different power blocs; soft power too, e.g. aid
Involving an arms race that spilt into space
And with crises from the Berlin Blockade to the CMC and Solidarity, and proxy wars, e.g. Korea
What was the iron curtain?
A term first used by Winston Churchill in a speech in Fulton, Missouri
The border between the Soviet bloc, countries controlled by the Soviet Union, and the West stretching from Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic
The separation of free democratic states from communist dominated ones
It ran right through Europe and, in the eastern half, right through the centre of Berlin
It came to be a heavily defended border
Churchill said that Soviet actions were a threat to Europe and to world trade.