The Cold War was a period of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union following World War II (1947–1991). During this period, the two superpowers used various tactics such as propaganda, espionage, and counterintelligence, as well as stockpiling nuclear weapons. This led to the creation of two blocs of countries, the Western (led by the United States) and the Eastern (led by the Soviet Union), which competed with each other in various areas (technological, economic, cultural, etc.).
The Western Bloc was a political and military alliance of European and North American countries created under the leadership of the United States to oppose the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. It included countries that shared democratic and capitalist principles and were influenced by the United States and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
The Western bloc was created to fulfill two main tasks: to ensure the security of NATO, which is part of it, and to expand its influence in the world, opposing the communist movement. It played an important role in international relations and world geopolitics during the Cold War, but it lost importance and began to disintegrate in the early 1990s, when the East-West confrontation ended.
The Eastern Bloc was a political and military alliance created during the Cold War that united the socialist countries of Eastern Europe, as well as China and other countries under the control or strong influence of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party. The Eastern Bloc included the USSR, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania.
The Eastern Bloc was created to counter the US-led Western Bloc, which believed that capitalism and democracy were the best forms of government, and their system was called “Western European Democracy.” The Eastern Bloc proclaimed its ideas of socialism and communism as more advanced.
However, various internal problems and economic difficulties, as well as the inability to maintain competition with the West, led to the Eastern Bloc breaking up and collapsing in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The Cold War had a significant impact on international politics and involved many conflicts such as Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan. Although there was no direct military conflict between the US and the USSR, the constant tension between the two countries was very tense and sometimes brought the world to the brink of war.