The first confrontations

The first confrontations


From 1947 onwards, the Cold War gave rise to localised conflicts that opposed the two camps without triggering an outright war between the United States and the USSR.


Greece was in the midst of a civil war since the autumn of 1946, and after initially having let the United Kingdom act alone, the United States later intervened actively to help the anti-Communist forces. In China, American aid was given to the Nationalist Chang Kai-Shek, but that failed to halt the advance of the Communists, supported by the Soviet Union. The Cold War reached its first climax with the Soviet blockade of Berlin. In June 1950 the stage moved from Europe to South-East Asia as Communist North Korean troops invaded South Korea. The region became a bloody ideological battleground, pitting the West against the Communist world. This indirectly precipitated the rearmament of the Federal Republic of Germany.


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