why was the conflict between the united states and soviet union called the cold war

In June 1948, the first major international crisis of the Cold War occured when the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin from the rest of the country following controversial currency reforms, according to the Imperial War Museum in London. and the Soviet Union, according to the National Army Museum in London.īerlin was similarly divided into four zones of occupation, despite the city falling within the Soviet Zone of the country. Berlin and the Cold Warįollowing the defeat of the Nazis on VE Day - the end of World War II in Europe - Germany and Austria were divided into four separate zones governed by France, the U.K., the U.S. The space race came to a symbolic end in 1975 when the first joint U.S.-Soviet mission was launched and Tom Stafford and Alexi Leonov shook hands in space. achieved one of the most significant victories in the space race when Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to travel to space, orbiting the Earth once and returning safely in the spacecraft Vostok 1. In 1957 the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 was successfully launched into orbit. In 1953 an armistice was agreed that established a new border close to the 38th parallel. In 1951, China, another communist nation, sent troops in support of North Korea, and the two sides reached a stalemate. The United Nations quickly arranged support for the south, and troops from the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa, among others, were sent to oppose North Korea. On June 25, 1950, North Korea, with support from the USSR (including covert operations and providing aircraft and medical support), invaded South Korea. At the end of World War II, Korea, a former territory of Japan, was divided along its 38th parallel, and an internal border was established between the communist North Korea backed by the Soviet Union and the Western-leaning South Korea, according to the Imperial War Museum. The first hotspot of the Cold War, when the two sides came into military conflict - albeit indirectly - was the Korean War, which took place between 19. Men of the 187th US Regimental Combat Team prepare for battle during the Korean War (Image credit: Getty/ Hulton Archive)

Why was the conflict between the united states and soviet union called the cold war