This picture illustrates the Capitalist states (blue) vs communist states (red)
An illustration of the political & financial spectrums
The Big Three meeting at Yalta where deep suspicion emerged amongst the three most powerful allies
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1945-1990: The Cold WarThe Cold War has its roots as far back as the Russian Revolution in 1917. During World War I a man by the name of Vladamir Lenin was leading the communist Red Army against the more moderate White Army in the attempt to seize government control from the autocratic czars. Suspicious of the communist philosophy President Woodrow Wilson sent troops to fight the communist Red Army to no avail. As time passed the communists embraced the western world with suspicion because of the political and philosophical differences as well as the U.S.’s attempt to halt Soviet (communist) control. Prior to World War II the U.S. and the Soviet Union possessed completely different ambitions. The Soviets attempted to control all property and economic activity where the U.S. practiced a capitalist society that emphasized individual property and economic control. The U.S. also sought for free elections where the Soviets abolished any opposing political philosophies. Additionally the Soviets resented the capitalist west because they continually delayed opening a western front against the Germans causing immense Soviet casualties. At the end of World War II, Americans began to become haunted by a new fear, the Soviet Union led by Joseph Stalin embraced a tightly controlled political system called communism. Many Americans believed that this political and economic philosophy threatened the American way of life. The intense suspicion each group had for one another spilled over into a long term arms escalation that separated every world country into three parties, the free capitalist world (the first world) the communist world (the second world) and everyone else (the third world). This bitter feeling that resulted in near apocalypse between the free world and the communist world is referred to as the Cold War. For forty years U.S. statesmen in alliance with NATO fought to end this war in a peaceful victory which eventually came in the late 1980s. Their policies are held as an example of using military and economic might to bring about peace.
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