CONCEPT – COLD WAR

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 CONCEPT – COLD WAR

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• QUICK INPUTS :

1. The vast destruction due to Second World War left two superpowers standing: the United States and the Soviet Union, both with totally different vision about the international political system.
2. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union made detailed maps of the Canadian Arctic that other ships still use them today and even prefer them over current Canadian maps! 
3. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union detonated the largest nuclear weapon the world had ever seen. Called the Tsar of Bomba (King of the Bombs), it released the equivalent of over 50 megatons of TNT. That was a response to the American nuclear prowess.
4. The peak of the Cold War was the Cuban Missile Crisis 1962, the closest the world has ever come to self-destruction.
5. In 1987, a West German teenager flew a single engine Cessna solo through every advanced Soviet defensive shield and landed at the Kremlin gates. He wanted to build peace between the East and West by performing such a daring stunt. The Soviets promptly arrested him for "malicious hooliganism.“
6. The Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb on August 29, 1949, at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan. The event ended America's monopoly on atomic weaponry and launched the Cold War.
7. CIA agents during the Cold War used a method of communication based on how their shoelaces were tied. The shoelace patterns could convey messages such as "I have information," "Follow me," or "I have brought another person.“
8. The Cold War lasted 40 years (1950 – 1990), during which time the United States and the Soviet Union tried to control as many countries as possible, even if those countries were not very valuable economically or strategically.
9. The Vietnam War (1959–75) was the deadliest proxy war of the Cold War era. Over 3.5 million people died. The second worst war during the Cold War was the Korean War (1950–53), with over 3 million people killed.
10. Both President Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev agreed that they would pause the Cold War if there was ever an alien invasion!
11. U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev declared the official end of the Cold War at the Malta Summit in 1989.
12. The Iron Curtain refers to the border dividing Europe between noncommunist Western Europe and Communist Eastern Europe. Physically, the Iron Curtain stretched 4,225 miles (6,779 km). Today, there is talk of a “Digital Iron Curtain”.
13. Winston Churchill was the first person to use the term "iron curtain" to refer to the Cold War boundaries. He said an "iron curtain" had fallen across Europe.
14. Largely in response to the Cold War, twelve western nations created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). If the Soviet Union attacked one country, the others would defend them.
15. During the Cold War, the United States was eager to overthrow Fidel Castro, the dictator of Cuba, who was allied with the Soviets. Hundreds of assassination attempts failed. Fidel Castro survived and died of natural causes. He was a friend of India.
16. The Berlin Wall was the quintessential symbol of the Cold War. It was broken down in November 1991 by citizens!
17. During the Cold War, the Soviets covertly shipped thousands of Russian troops to Cuba. While the United States estimated that around 8,000 Russian troops were stationed in Cuba, the real number was over 40,000.
18. The Cold War was called "cold" because there was no direct major conflict between the Soviets and the United States, although they supported major proxy wars around the globe.

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