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The Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis

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While the Cold War lasted for over forty years and ended with a resounding defeat of communism, it faded into a confrontation of proxies and indirect sparring. The buildup to the Cuban Missile Crisis was drawn out and measured in the diplomatic battles that were waged. Although the Cold War started after the end of World War II, it was the Cuban Missile Crisis that brought the world to the brink of a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Most historians mark the start of the Cold War on February 4, 1945 at the Yalta Conference between Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin Roosevelt. At this point in the war, Stalin had a 12 million-man army with 300 divisions that had already reached the Oder River. They were only waiting for the order to attack toward Berlin. The Red Army commander was ordered by Stalin to pause while the conference was in session.
While Roosevelt was at the conference, it was obvious that he was not in the best health from photographs that were taken. He was accused by some of his critics of selling out at Yalta and handing Eastern Europe to Stalin. Here was also the accusation that he had made secret deals with Stalin at this conference. “Bert Andrews in the New York Herald Examiner wrote about 4 secret deals: Russia's demand for $20 billion in reparations from Germany, for Poland to the Curzon line, for 3 seats in the United Nations, for territory in the Far East including Outer Mongolia, south Sakhalin Island, the Kuriles” (Schoenherr, 2006).
The results of this conference on both sides were not helpful for East-West relations. There were no free elections in Eastern Europe that was under control of the Soviet communists. As a result of this, the media in the United States grew increasingly hostile towards the Soviet Union. Roosevelt held out hope that the place to deal with Stalin and his actions

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