Blog/The Cold War
#TheColdWar
The Cold War
Every Historical Conquest article on The Cold War — 27 pieces of narrative history written for students and teachers.
1. Heroes and Villains of the Cold War: From World War II to the Cold War: Former Allies Become Rivals
My Name is Joseph Stalin: Revolutionary, Dictator, and Leader of the Soviet UnionFor nearly three decades I stood at the center of the Soviet Union. I was born Ioseb Jugh
52 min
1. Lessons from Cold War: From World War II to the Cold War: Former Allies Become Rivals
An Alliance Built to Defeat Hitler Not to Last was one of the strangest partnerships of World War II. The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union became the th
42 min
2. Heroes and Villains of the Cold War: Iron Curtain: Communism Takes Hold in Eastern Europe
My Name is Clement Attlee: British Prime MinisterI served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the difficult years immediately following the Second World War. I
36 min
2. Lessons from Cold War: Iron Curtain: Communism Takes Hold in Eastern Europe
The Red Army Moves West: Soviet Liberation Becomes Soviet OccupationThe Red Army Moves West: Soviet Liberation Becomes Soviet Occupation (1944–1945). In the final years o
45 min
3. Heroes and Villains of the Cold War: Containment: Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and New Mission
My Name is Dean Acheson: Architect of American ContainmentI was born in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1893, into a household where public affairs, education, and duty were
48 min
3. Lessons from Cold War: Iron Curtain: Containment: Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and New Mission
The Question Facing America: Retreat or Remain Engaged? (1945–1947)World War II was over, Nazi Germany had been defeated, and Japan had surrendered. American soldiers wer
41 min
4. Heroes and Villains of the Cold War: Berlin: The First Great Cold War Showdown (1948–1949)
My Name is Lucius D. Clay: The General Who Would Not Abandon BerlinI was born in Marietta, Georgia, in 1898, the son of a United States senator. I entered West Point and
47 min
4. Lessons from Cold War: Berlin: The First Great Cold War Showdown (1948–1949)
Berlin After World War II: One City Divided Among Four PowersBerlin was a shattered capital at the center of a defeated nation. Years of Allied bombing and the final Batt
43 min
5. Heroes and Villains of the Cold War: China Turns Communist and Cold War Spreads to Asia (1945-1949)
My Name is Chiang Kai-shek: I Lost China, but I Did Not SurrenderI was born in 1887 in Zhejiang Province, when China was still ruled by the Qing Dynasty but was being wea
50 min
5. Lessons from Cold War: China Turns Communist and Cold War Spreads to Asia (1945–1949)
China After World War II: A Nation DividedIn August 1945, people across China could finally celebrate the defeat of Imperial Japan after years of invasion, occupation, de
43 min
6. Heroes and Villains of the Cold War: The Korean War: The Cold War Turns Hot (1950–1953)
My Name is Syngman Rhee: President of South KoreaI was born in 1875 in a Korea very different from the nation the world knows today. The Joseon Dynasty still ruled, but K
50 min
6. Lessons from Cold War: The Korean War: The Cold War Turns Hot (1950–1953)
A Divided Korea: North and South After World War IIWhen World War II ended in August 1945, Koreans had reason to celebrate. For thirty-five years, Korea had been ruled as
38 min
7. Heroes and Villains of the Cold War: The Nuclear Arms Race and the Fear of World War III (1949–1963)
My Name is Nikita Khrushchev: Leader of the Soviet UnionI was born in 1894 in the village of Kalinovka, near the borderlands of Russia and Ukraine. I did not come from pa
50 min
7. Lessons from Cold War: The Nuclear Arms Race and the Fear of World War III (1949–1963)
The Soviet Atomic Bomb: America Loses Its Nuclear Monopoly (1949)For four years after World War II, the United States possessed something no other nation on Earth was kno
39 min
8. Heroes and Villains of the Cold War: Spies, the CIA, KGB, and the Secret Cold War
My Name is Elizabeth Bentley: Soviet Courier Turned American InformantI was born in New Milford, Connecticut, in 1908, and nothing about my childhood suggested that I wou
46 min
8. Lessons from Cold War: Spies, the CIA, KGB, and the Secret Cold War
The Birth of the CIA and KGB: Building the Cold War’s Secret ArmiesWhen World War II ended in 1945, American and Soviet soldiers could look back on a war in which their n
34 min
9. Heroes and Villains of the Cold War: Cold War at Home: Red Scare, McCarthyism, and American Society
My Name is Joseph McCarthy: The Senator Who Gave His Name to McCarthyismI was born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, in 1908. I grew up on a farm in a large Catholic family, and
54 min
9. Lessons from Cold War: Cold War at Home: Red Scare, McCarthyism, and American Society
The Soviet Union, once an ally against Nazi Germany, had become America's greatest international rival, communist governments were spreading across Eastern Europe, and fe
34 min
10. Heroes and Villains of the Cold War: NATO, the Warsaw Pact, and a Militarized Europe
My Name is Ernest Bevin: From a Working Boy to Britain's Foreign SecretaryI became Britain's Foreign Secretary at a moment when victory in one terrible war was giving way
47 min
10. Lessons from Cold War: NATO, the Warsaw Pact, and a Militarized Europe
Why NATO Was Created: Western Europe Searches for Security (1948–1949)In 1948, Western Europe was free from World War II—but it did not feel secure. Two devastating world
41 min
11. Lessons from Cold War: The Space Race: Sputnik to the Moon
Rockets Before the Space Race: From World War II to the Cold WarBefore Sputnik beeped above the Earth and before astronauts dreamed of walking on the Moon, the technology
44 min
11. Heroes and Villains of the Cold War: The Space Race: Sputnik to the Moon
My Name is Wernher von Braun: Rocket Engineer and Architect of the Saturn VLong before rockets became weapons of war or machines capable of carrying men to the Moon, I dr
50 min
12. Heroes and Villains of the Cold War: Cuba, the Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban Missile Crisis (1959–1962)
My Name is Fidel Castro: Revolutionary Leader of CubaI was born in 1926 near Birán, in eastern Cuba, the son of Ángel Castro, a successful landowner, and Lina Ruz Gonzále
60 min
12. Lessons from Cold War: Cuba, the Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban Missile Crisis (1959–1962)
1959 — The Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro Overthrows BatistaIn 1959, the Cuban Revolution transformed Cuba and created a political shockwave that would eventually reach f
48 min
13. Heroes and Villains of the Cold War: The Vietnam War: Communism, Containment, and the Battlefield
My Name is Ho Chi Minh: Revolutionary Leader of North VietnamI devoted my life to the independence and revolutionary transformation of Vietnam. I was born Nguyễn Sinh Cun
49 min
13. Lessons from Cold War: The Vietnam War: Communism, Containment, and America’s Longest Cold War Battlefield
Dien Bien Phu, the Geneva Accords, and the Division of Vietnam1954 - The division of Vietnam marked the dramatic end of French colonial rule in Indochina and created the
48 min
14. Lessons from Cold War: Revolution and Proxy Wars in Latin America
Guatemala: The CIA-Backed Coup and the Beginning of a New Cold War Battlefield1954 - Long before American troops fought in Vietnam, the United States was already confront
38 min