The Cold War was 1945 to 1991. Is this a correct fact?

The Cold War was 1945 to 1991. Is this a correct fact?

You can make a strong case for the Cold War starting after WW2, went through different stages/phases and ended with the fall of the Berlin wall and the disbanding of the Soviet Union.
So basically yes, you can say that.

You can make a strong case for the Cold War starting after WW2, went through different stages/phases and ended with the fall of the Berlin wall and the disbanding of the Soviet Union.
So basically yes, you can say that.


Thanks for replying.

Yeah, there's no really 'official' starting date for the Cold War, but most people would say that December '91 was when the Cold War ended. I was just curious on people's opinions!

The Berlin Wall fell in '89. That is usually when people say the Cold War ended.



Cat

if you were answering on a test that's what you should say, but i think it was a bit of a phony war until the berlin blockade in '48. before that it was mostly name-calling.

The Berlin Wall fell in '89. That is usually when people say the Cold War ended.



Cat


Well, I heard 1991 from a lot of people too. It was when the Soviet Union officially fell all the way down.

if you were answering on a test that's what you should say, but i think it was a bit of a phony war until the berlin blockade in '48. before that it was mostly name-calling.


Yeah, the problem with having a timeline with the Cold War is that there's really no official starting point for it. And since there's no official starting point, there's going to be people who take advantage of it and read it arbitrarily the way they want to!

Kinda like The Great Depression, there's really no official end to it. We just know it ended, LOL.

Yeah, the problem with having a timeline with the Cold War is that there's really no official starting point for it. And since there's no official starting point, there's going to be people who take advantage of it and read it arbitrarily the way they want to!

Kinda like The Great Depression, there's really no official end to it. We just know it ended, LOL.



Actually, the Great Depression was ended by WWII. Why? Because the government started spending a lot of $$$ and putting people to work making arms, planes, boats, etc, etc. The people in Washington could learn a thing or two by studying History.  ::)



Cat

Actually, the Great Depression was ended by WWII. Why? Because the government started spending a lot of $$$ and putting people to work making arms, planes, boats, etc, etc. The people in Washington could learn a thing or two by studying History.  ::)



Cat
it's hard to say that the new deal wouldn't have worked better if FDR hadn't listened to bonehead advisors and implemented austerity measures in '37, much like what we're doing today, and put us back in the crapper. i know i'd read that a lot of people were worried we'd slip back into the depression after the war ended. what really saved us i think were things like the GI bill and the marshall plan to rebuild europe. the lesson remains, but spending on exports and social programs gives you much better returns than war spending, cuz that creates circulating goods and money. spending on war is literally blowing up your money and dumping it into the ocean.

Well, I heard 1991 from a lot of people too. It was when the Soviet Union officially fell all the way down.


The Manchester Union-Leader said the commies were playing possum!
:D

The Manchester Union-Leader said the commies were playing possum!
:D


http://www.aaanimalcontrol.com/professional-trapper/images/opossum.jpg

;D

spending on war is literally blowing up your money and dumping it into the ocean.


Works if you manage to be the only surviving industrial power after the dust settles.  Technological changes after 1945 made that strategy obsolete.  

I'd say any time between 1945 (V-J day) and the Berlin Airlift qualifies as the start of the Cold War.  I'd go with the other poster who said 1989 (fall of the Berlin Wall) or 1991 (official dissolution of the USSR, despite the fact that the bureaucracy-formerly-known-as-KGB still runs the country-that-formerly-made-up-90%-of-the-former-USSR) as the end of the Cold War.

Whether it's actually over or not depends on how Russia plays its cards, and is a question for future historians to answer.  If I'm wrong, someone will rename The Cold War as Cold War I, the same way our grandparents renamed The Great War (aka "The War to End All Wars") as World War I.