Sean Geer

Mrs. Howell
World History p.4
June 2, 2015
Hot Spots For A Cold War
The cold war was the cold war with some very hot moments. From the years 1945-1989 the
USSR and the US were fighting about the belief of communism. The US believed people should
be free and the communist are stopping this from happening, and it was fought all around the
world. The cold war had no physical fighting between US and USSR but there were three points
that could have possibly started world war 3 because of how high the tensions were, these
tensions were the Cuban missile crisis, N.A.T.O and warsaw pact, and the Vietnam war.
The Cuban missile crisis was the fear the US had when the USSR had put missiles 90
miles of the coast of Florida in Cuba. You have placed destructive missile weapons which you
call offensive, in Turkey, littersaly next to us. (Document F) This document shows how high
tensions were due to the US complaining about the missiles in Cuba Then after the US demanded
that they remove the missiles, the the USSR explained how the US was being unfair because the
US had their missiles right next to USSR. A blocade from the coast of Florida to the coast of
South America surrounding Cuba was set up to have air and naval patrol around to watch the
USSR and their missiles that were placed in CubA.
At the beinging of thhe war two different pacts were created. One being a capitolist group
called N.A.T.O and a communist group called Warsaw. "With 1,986,000 ground troops to
1,714,000 N.A.t.o beats Warsaw in numbers of a bigger millitary. (document K) These numbers
for one catigory just give a brief preview of how little NATO had on Warsaw. These two groups
wamted bigger numbers and more countries on there side. What they did for the neutral countries
to fall into communism or capitalism, was try to form an alliance or give aid to convince there
side. This created tension between the two countries because they both fought for the same
countries.
Another major event that almost lead to a physical fighting was dering the Cold War, just
happened to be a real war. The Vietnam war. "He recalled seeing a small boy about three
or four years old, standing by the trail with a gunshot wound in one arm." (Document I)
In this letter written to president Nixon there is understanding that innocent children and
people were being injured and killed. This was our problem because we were involved in
this war to fight off communism. "The captains radio operater put out a burst of 16 into
him." (Document C) This quote shows what we had done to the people who lived in
Vietnam to stop the spread of communism.
No physical fighting between the U.S. And and USSR had taken place during this 44 year Cold
War. Tensions were great and no war broke out. The hot spots where tensions were greatest
tensions are when world war 3 could have broke out due to the actions of the U.S. and USSR.