The Cold War strategy of containment grew out of a telegram of more than 5,000 words, and its author later criticized how Washington carried it out.

In 1946, diplomat George Kennan sent a long telegram from Moscow warning that the Soviet Union was inherently expansionist. His analysis laid the groundwork for the US policy of containment that defined the early Cold War.

Introduced in 1947, the Truman Doctrine pledged US support for nations resisting communism—starting with Greece and Turkey—and launched the containment policy that defined early Cold War strategy.

The geopolitical rivalry between the United States and Soviet Union was considered “cold" because the two countries never directly engaged in military combat during the time period. This page from the Kennedy Presidential Library outlines the causes and major events of the early Cold War.

Both superpowers waged a global battle for hearts and minds through propaganda—using film, radio, art and education to promote their values. The US emphasized freedom and prosperity, while the USSR championed socialism and anti-imperialism.

At the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam Conferences, Allied leaders coordinated WWII strategy—but deep disagreements over postwar Europe foreshadowed the Cold War. The USSR’s push for influence in Eastern Europe clashed with US and British calls for self-determination.

Articulated in 1968, the Brezhnev Doctrine claimed the Soviet Union's right to intervene militarily in its satellite states to prevent any deviation from communist rule. It was used to justify the invasion of Czechoslovakia that same year and the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

To avoid direct confrontation, the superpowers supported rival factions in conflicts around the world—including in Korea, Vietnam, Angola, and Afghanistan.

US–Soviet tensions began decades before WWII. After the 1917 revolution, the US refused to recognize the Bolshevik regime and even sent troops to fight against it.

In a 1946 speech, Winston Churchill declared that an “Iron Curtain” had descended across Europe—dividing East from West. The address marked one of the first public acknowledgments of the emerging Cold War and coined the term that would define the conflict.

Rather than seeking a declaration of war, Truman sent troops to Korea under his own authority, citing the UN Charter and his role as commander in chief. The decision set a precedent that subsequent presidents have relied on ever since.

President Monroe used his Annual Message to Congress to warn European powers against further colonization in the Western Hemisphere, asserting US opposition to foreign intervention and laying the foundation for a cornerstone of American foreign policy that remains to this day.

Fearing Soviet expansion, the US intervened across Latin America by backing coups, funding right-wing regimes, and supporting anti-communist militias—most notably in Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua and Guatemala.

The first use of atomic weapons introduced the possibility of a war with no survivors. This article examines how nuclear fear shaped Cold War diplomacy and continues to influence international relations today.

First articulated in 1823 by President James Monroe, the doctrine declared the Western Hemisphere off limits to European colonization. It has since been invoked to justify US military interventions in Latin America, from Teddy Roosevelt's takeover of Venezuela to George H.W. Bush's arrest of Panama's leader Manuel Noriega.

Despite the Cold War's end, the US and Russia still hold 95% of the world's nuclear weapons—many on hair-trigger alert. In this 2010 documentary, top former officials urge urgent action to reduce and eliminate the threat.

Monroe outlined four positions: the US would not interfere in European conflicts; it would not disturb existing European colonies in the Americas; the Western Hemisphere was closed to new colonization; and any European attempt to control an independent American republic would be regarded as a threat to US security.

The fear of Soviet dominance prompted the US to invest heavily in space, but public support was also crucial. This video shows how marketing, media, and "soft power" framed spaceflight as peaceful, aspirational, and worth the cost—helping sustain the space race at home.

Launched in 1948, the Marshall Plan provided over $12B (roughly $150B today) in US aid to help rebuild Western Europe. While framed as economic recovery, it also served as a Cold War tool—tying countries to the US and excluding the Soviet bloc.

CBS Sunday Morning explores the origins of the Monroe Doctrine, tracing how a 19th-century warning against European intervention shaped US foreign policy and influenced America’s role in the Western Hemisphere for generations.

On Dec. 2, 2025, the 202nd anniversary of the doctrine, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation reaffirming US "dominance" in the Western Hemisphere. His administration's national security strategy officially codified the "Trump Corollary," stating that the US would prevent non-hemispheric powers from gaining strategic influence in the Americas.

The Korean War largely shaped the evolution of the Cold War in Asia. Explore the Wilson Center’s digital collection of primary sources—including essays, profiles, popular documents, and a timeline—to learn about the Korean War. In 1945, the...

As newly independent African nations emerged after World War II, the US and USSR vied for influence—backing opposing sides in civil wars and revolutions. Conflicts in Angola, Ethiopia and Mozambique became proxy fronts in the Cold War.

This award-winning podcast features gripping interviews with the people who lived through the Cold War—spies, soldiers, defectors, and civilians. Covering everything from the Berlin Wall to nuclear standoffs, it offers unfiltered, emotional accounts of Cold War life and conflict.

Long before the revolution and missile crisis, US involvement in Cuba stretched back over 150 years—rooted in slavery, sugar, and shifting imperial ambitions. This short video traces how cycles of intervention and neglect shaped the island’s modern history.

The Yalta Conference was a pivotal 1945 meeting between Allied leaders that helped shape the postwar global order and laid the groundwork for the founding of the United Nations.

The US led a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In retaliation, the USSR and its allies skipped the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

Fought to contain communism in Southeast Asia, the Vietnam War became one of the most costly and controversial Cold War conflicts. The US ultimately withdrew in 1973, and South Vietnam fell to communist forces two years later.

From Olympic medal counts to hockey showdowns, the US and USSR used sports to showcase ideological superiority. Athletic victories were framed as proof that each system—capitalist or communist—produced stronger, more disciplined citizens.

In 1949, the USSR successfully tested its first atomic bomb—ending the US monopoly on nuclear weapons and sparking an arms race that would define the Cold War.

Eleven months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt outlined four fundamental freedoms that, in his words, people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy—speech, worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

The Soviet Union and its allies operated outside the Bretton Woods institutions, meaning the postwar liberal order functioned as a regional rather than a truly global system. This changed with the USSR's collapse in 1991.

The National WWII Museum’s “To the Best of My Ability” podcast series delves into how Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman steered the US through World War Two.

This podcast explores how the policy motivated a century of US military intervention throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific—covering the annexation of Hawaii, the Spanish-American War, and occupations of Cuba, Haiti, and Panama.

The US adopted a two-pronged "island hopping" campaign across the Central and Southwest Pacific from 1943–44, deliberately targeting strategically crucial but less-defended islands. This allowed forces to bypass heavily fortified Japanese strongholds and build airfields for bombers aimed at Japan, drastically accelerating the path toward Tokyo while conserving manpower and resources.

Moscow's decision to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba—just 90 miles from the US—pushed the world to the brink of nuclear war. To prevent future crises, both sides later set up a direct hotline and boosted arms-control diplomacy

From the Sedition Act of 1798 to the prosecution of anti-war activists during World War I, the US government repeatedly curtailed speech and dissent during wartime—actions widely criticized and, in some cases, later deemed unconstitutional.

In the late 1940s, the USSR solidified control over Eastern Europe by installing pro-communist regimes in countries like Poland, Hungary and Romania—often through rigged elections and political repression.

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On Dec. 2, 1823, President Monroe delivered his seventh annual message to Congress, now known as the State of the Union. One segment—warning European powers against interfering in the Western Hemisphere—became known as the Monroe Doctrine.

Decades before Pearl Harbor, the US held major Pacific territories—Hawaii, the Philippines, Guam, American Samoa, and numerous island bases—giving it strategic reach across the western Pacific. This presence increasingly overlapped with Japan’s imperial ambitions in the region, contributing to rising tensions.

From 1922 to 1991, the Soviet Union spanned one-sixth of Earth’s landmass and housed nearly 300 million people. As the most significant test of Marxist governance, it sat at the center of the century’s defining struggle between capitalism and communism.

A secret 1960 memo by State Department official Lester Mallory argued that trade restrictions were “the only foreseeable means” to unseat Castro by provoking hunger and desperation. This page compiles declassified US documents detailing that strategy and its aftermath.

The French philosopher was a long-time ardent supporter of communism and the USSR. He finally spoke out against the movement with the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary, saying that the move was "made possible by 12 years of terror and imbecility."

Today's tensions were formed after the Chinese Communist Party defeated the Kuomintang shortly after World War II. Here's a thorough explainer on what happened.