The two superpowers never engaged each other through military action, but they had extreme political tension that could have led to war at any time. In June of 1948, the French, United States, and United Kingdom partitions of Germany were merged to form West Germany. In response to the merger, Russia blocked supply routes leading in and out of Western Berlin. The people of Western Berlin were starving and dying from lack of food and supplies. These actions caused the United States to step in and take action, an exercise known as the Berlin Airlift. The United States had to make supply drops periodically in the city to prevent any more torture or casualties to the people of Western …show more content…
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a huge part of the Cold War. The Soviets funded the Cuban Military to secretly make and smuggle weapons onto the island and set them up facing the United States. A US spy plane reported the construction of a Soviet nuclear missile base in Cuba. President Kennedy called for a naval blockade and demanded the removal of the missiles. War was avoided when the Russians agreed to remove the missiles and the United States agreed to never invade Cuba unless provoked directly by Cuba. In July 1965, the United States sent 150,000 US troops to Vietnam. North Vietnam was trying to make South Vietnam a communist nation. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and South Vietnam was supported by the United States. The United States sent massive manpower and lost a lot of soldiers, but was unsuccessful in stopping the North Vietnamese. The loss was not only a setback to ending communism in Asia, but a shock to American morale. The United States citizens disagreed with going to war with Vietnam because we really had no business in the