A topic in spam sparked my interest in this. All I know about the Cold War is it was some war in the early 80's. Like most wars, it was something to do with oil and the United States thinking cuba had nukes. The cold war whent on for awhile, and then when the US found another source of oil it fizzled out.

So what are your thoughts on this? Does anyone have any working knowledge in this subject?

its called the cold war because very little (if any) actual fighting happened...

arms race between US and Russia, i think several technological advances were made during this period as well...

The cold war was a period of political tension between the USA (and it's Nato allies) and the USSR (and it's Warsaw pact allies) over global idoleolgy. It has a disputed starting point, I would personally say about 1947 and lasted up until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The USA backed captilisism, or basicly any goverment that was anti-communist (this extended to alot of dictatorships, such as the ones in Argentina and Brazil) while the USSR backed socialist or communist ones. There were some exceptions however, such as when Nixon backed communist China, and in turn the USSR started to suport democratic India. It was not always an arms race, there were talks on arms reductions between both powers during some points (look up the SALT meetings). This was a period of "dente" between the USSR and the USA before Regan came into power.

What you refering to about Cuba is the Cuban missle crisis. The Soviets were putting nukes on Cuba which could annhiliate anywhere in North American, which obviously made the US quite nervous, so the US in turn blockaded Cuba. There was a standoff, then the USSR backed down and removed it's nuclear arms from Cuba.

As for oil, I have no idea where you got that from. The most well known war that the US was involved with was Vietnam, and there wasn't much oil to be had there.

CF...

When PKB sees this he will DECAPITATE you and piss into your corpse.

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Why? I'm trying to get informed about the cold war. I dont think PKB would have a problem with that.

You said it all you knew about it was it was a war in the early 80s. That level of ignorance about such a MAJOR part of history that is in fact rather recent still and has a direct impact on WHERE YOU IN PARTICULAR LIVE, is rather startling.

As Hanzo its start is a bit disputed, I would say it really started around 1945, almost before the end of WWII, as much of the motivation for the quick actions taken in Japan by the U.S. was to prevent Russian control there. However, obviously the USSR didn't have much power to turn it into the height of the cold war until they developed nuclear weapons.

It more or less REALLY ended when the USSR crumbled. The cold war was really about two main factors: 1)politics/economic systems that would control the world (Capitalism and democracy vs Communism in its various strains) 2) Nuclear arms. The reason it was such a cold war was a matter of "who will launch the nukes first". Oil was never even a factor in the cold war, though it was during other conflicts (some unarmed in fact) which occurred outside of the cold war.

Hanzo explained the cuban missle crises thing which happened under JFK. Interesting thing about that is, as Robert McNamara talks about during "Fog of War", JFK actually went into the war room and said he had already decided to just destroy all of Cuba then and there before they had a chance to use their nukes. He was talked out of it, luckily, by one of his advisers who explained the situation was different then it seemed.

But yes, the Cold War also involved several wars and armed conflicts within itself. The Korean War and the Vietnam War are the biggest ones.
This is also where the "Berlin Wall" thing comes from, as there was a large wall dividing Berlin, the USSR controlled side from the U.S./later others controlled side. A large mark of the "Iron Curtain".

Erg, take a history class sometime.

... There were many "Open Arm Conflicts" during the Cold War.

Fuckin Korea anyone? Over a million Casualties; I would figure people would remember it. Not to mention it technically hasn't ended, just under a treaty.

Afghanistan? America backing the Taliban in an effort to screw over the U.S.S.R. The Russian government expending far too much money on a futile war effort, helping to drive their economy into the ground.

However, Hanzo hit most of the points. Still… how the hell can someone not know about one of the longest lasting “Political Wars” in modern history? It blows my mind…

Thanks wikipedia.

I'm surprised you haven't killed him.

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Well, there really was no way for me to have learned of the cold war. It's not taught in school, and I believe the majority of it happened before I was born and while I was growing up.
I think you guys know if it because you're political nerds. Though I've only recently became interested in the political proccess.

I don't give half of a rat's ass about politics and I knew.

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Well that's really weird

Me or someone else?

PTK. Do you live in the US? Have you grown up in the US? If so, then it is definitely taught in school. If you paid attention, then maybe you would have known about it. Hell, it's not a war that was limited to just the US, which is why even foreigners would know about it.

A lot of things happened before you were born. That's why it's considered history.

Seriously dude, people still talk about it all the time, outside of politics too. Literature, economics, immigration, technology, so much was influenced by the cold war and still makes reference to it. History, of course, talks about it the most.
The interesting thing is that because its actually so RECENT much of it isn't really considered History yet but still current events, at least by some standards (U.S. Archives, for instance). I'm sure you've heard of the Vietnam or Korean wars, and if you haven't... go back to school is all I can say. Those are some of the most noteable parts of the Cold war. And yes, many many more countries were involved, though the U.S. and USSR were the biggest players. But especially when you consider that the Korean war was official a U.N. act, though mostly lead and supplied by U.S. troops, it involved MANY countries.
I can't think of a single person I know, ranging from artists to factory workers, that don't know at least something about the Cold War.