Cold War

The three issues that led to a hard feeling between the Soviet Union and the US were:

-The disagreement by the US when Soviet Union when Stalin asked his Allies to attack Germany from the wast.

-After the war, Soviet Union demanded Germany to pay $20 billion in war damages, but the US resisted with this demand.

-When Soviet Union began to take over the eastern Europe and spread the communism, US was very angry and afraid with the Soviet aggression.

He initially avoided being caught up in the coup, and instead took refuge in the Russian White House (the seat of the provincial Parliament) while tanks took control of the Kremlin. Then at a crucial moment, a group of tanks arrived at the building and Yeltsin came out, climbed onto a tank, and made a speech that declared the coup was illegal and the people of Moscow must come out to oppose it. The news spread around the city and 50,000 protestors turned up at the White House in support of Yeltsin. The coup plotters backed away from attacking the building, realising it would result in carnage. As a result, they gave up and Gorbachev was released.

AS WORLD WAR 2 CAME TO AN END, A NEW CONFLICT EMERGED BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE SOVIET UNION. THIS CONFLICT, KNOWN AS THE COLD WAR, AFFECTED MANY REGIONS, INCLUDING BERLIN, EUROPE, ASIA, LATIN AMERICAN, CUBA, HUNGARIAN, KOREA, AND NICARAGUA.

To suppress the enemy or "keep their heads down"

(wikipedia.org) War of 1812, between the United States of America and the British Empire (particularly Great Britain and British North America), lasted from 1812 to 1815. It was fought chiefly on the Atlantic Ocean and on the land, coasts and waterways of North America.

Europeans first began extracting gold from that region, until it was over-shadowed by the Slave trade along the gold coast. After the slave trade, gold remained the major trade goods from Ghana.

The Cold War was between Democracy, aka the Free World (US, Great Britain, France, and other Free World nations) and Communism (USSR, People's Republic of China, and other Communist nations). The Cold War was not simply a shouting match with no real casualties between the US and USSR, as some on this web site have claimed. It was a global conflict in which millions were killed on four out of the seven continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, South America). The Greek Civil War, Korean War, Vietnam War, the Soviet-Afghan War, and many other wars were episodes of the Cold War.

believed that the Soviet Union would not risk war to expand communism

Australia sent B57 Canberra bomber crewmen, Infantry, Artillery, and a regiment of Centurion tanks.
Australia sent over more than 50,000 men (total served) and a squadron of Centurian Tanks to assist the allies in defeating the communist forces in Vietnam.

At all times. The War Powers (USA, France, Great Britain, and the USSR) maintained guard posts at all their points of entry and departure. The city of Berlin was technically an occupied city from the end of WWII until the dissolution of the USSR and the reunification of Germany.

The Soviet Zone, or East Berlin, was the capital of the German Democratic Republic. The wall was built in 1961 in order to prevent GDR citizens fleeing to the US, British, or French zones. The Wall was continually improved to include razor wire, machine gun nests, watch towers, land mines, attack dogs, and trip-wire explosives.

Numbers are unclear, but at least 125 people were killed in their attempts to escape to the West.

They developed the H-bomb, a bomb more powerful than the atomic bomb that the Americans dropped on Japan, and was stronger than the one that the Soviet Union detonated. The U.S. just wanted to be stronger than the Soviet Union.

For America, I would say the War in Iraq/War on Terrorism. As far as wars worldwide, I'm not sure.

After World War II, the four Allied Powers took up Occupation Zones in Germany. The US, UK, and French Zones eventually merged to become West Germany, which was a capitalist democracy like those three occupying powers. The Soviet Zone became a communist dictatorship like the Soviet Union was. It was this Soviet influence that resulted in German Communism in East Germany.

they had many other allies and would defeat the powers of soviet union leaders, they also had more nuclear weapons.

Current estimates are that the sun will run out of fuel in roughly 4.5 billion years. The sun is about half way through its solar life. When that happens, according to our current understanding, the sun will explode and engulf Mercury and Venus. Earth will be close enough to be turned into a cinder; our water and atmosphere will be burned and blown away into space; no life will survive. The sun will collapse into a black dwarf (not a black hole; our sun is not big enough to produce a black hole). That will be that. Long before then, we will have left earth to people other planets, assuming that we survive long enough to learn how.

Suspicion that one would attack the other.

Gerald Ford

The Russian economy collapsed a year before destroying whatever popularity and numerous attempts too force him from office.

democracy combined with properity

Both had a large nuclear arsenal. Both had the largest military forces in the world. Both had the habit of supporting dictatorships around the world. America supported right wing fascist dictatorships and the Soviet Union supported Left leaning dictatorships (which it itself was). In supporting these dictatorships both had a hand (either directly or indirectly) in the slaughter of millions of people worldwide. Both had sophisticated Intelligence services that monitored their own civilian populations and monitored populations abroad. That's all I can think of right now but I'm sure there is more.

The Warsaw Pact was designed to stop the threat of invasion from Western Europe. This would have been an unlikely event.

I will attempt a three-part answer to the question. Firstly, the Zeitgeist (German for "spirit of the times") for much of that part of the world's history was/has been the presence of strong, patriarchal leaders. Within that cultural and historical framework, male tyrannical leaders (such as the Czars of Russia, the Napoleonic types, etc.) continued to thrive, grow and yes, even to be groomed, in the ultimate nationalistic super-power zeal (which captivated much of Asian - European imagination and fervor). The evidence of this "super power" status was the annexation and subjugation of neighboring countries (which served a secondary purpose of also appropriating said countries' natural and other resources. Lacking a spirit of international interdependence, such as that proposed by Harry Truman in the League of Nations concept, there was as yet a barbaric, survival of the fittest mentality amongst nations) So, it could be argued that some communist countries were so only by result and NOT by design. In any event, people will always need order, protection, food and some semblance of peace (see Erickson's "Needs Hierarchy"). As people felt these needs provided by a strong, authoritarian regime, they were content to coexist within that regime for awhile. It is a well documented fact that communist regimes - although brutal, were quite efficient in their domestic economic productivity.

Secondly

The Berlin Airlift occurred after World War 2. When Germany surrendered, the four major countries of the Allies were placed in charge as occupation forces. The four countries were USA, Britain, France and Russia. The country was divided up into sectors and placed under the control of each country and the capitol city of Berlin was also divided. Later, Russia began to isolate the territories under their rule, including other border countries. This divided Germany and eventually Russia erected a wall that was known as the "Iron Curtain" along the border.

Since the city of Berlin was within the region occupied by Russia, the sectors of the city that was under the rule of US, Britain and France were cut off from the other regions of Germany to the west, which still had some freedom. The Soviet Prime Minister wanted to exert complete control, so he closed the only road that connected the part of Berlin that was free from the remaining West Germany. The US and the other allies didn't want Russia to take complete control over Berlin, so they sent food and supplies into Berlin by air---thus the Berlin Airlift.

Eventually, Russia gave in and re-opened the road.

Hungary and Czechoslovakia