The Cold War was the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, and their allies, from the end of World War II in 1945 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was "cold" because the two superpowers never fought each other directly. Instead they competed through an arms race in nuclear weapons, a space race, propaganda, spying, alliances such as NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan. The two sides stood for rival systems: capitalist democracy against one-party communism. Its tensest moment was the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. It ended after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the break-up of the USSR in December 1991.

The Cold War is long, and that is what makes it hard to revise. The fix is to learn it as a line that goes tense and calm in turns, then hang the events on that line.

The key terms first

Most exam questions use these words, and most mistakes come from using them loosely.

Containment is the word to get exactly right. It does not mean defeating the USSR. It means drawing a line around the communist world and holding it.

The timeline in one table

Here are the turning points, grouped into phases. Learn the phases, then the dates.

Three turning points, in more detail

Berlin, twice. Berlin sat about 160 kilometres inside the Soviet zone of Germany but was itself split four ways. In 1948, after the Western powers introduced a new currency in their zones, Stalin blocked all road, rail and canal routes into West Berlin. The West answered by flying in food and fuel for almost eleven months. Stalin lifted the blockade in May 1949, and the same year Germany became two states, West and East. Between 1949 and 1961 more than 2.5 million East Germans left for the West, many through Berlin, so the East German government, backed by Moscow, sealed the border overnight on 13 August and then built a wall. For 28 years it was the Cold War's most visible symbol.

Cuba, 1962. After Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959 and the failed US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, Khrushchev placed nuclear missiles in Cuba, partly to protect Castro and partly to answer US missiles in Turkey. A US spy plane photographed the sites in mid-October. Kennedy announced a naval quarantine on 22 October. On 28 October Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles in return for a US pledge not to invade Cuba, and, secretly, the later removal of US missiles from Turkey. Both sides had seen how close they came, and the hotline and test ban treaty followed in 1963.

1989 to 1991. Gorbachev, leader from 1985, faced a stagnant economy and a costly war in Afghanistan. He loosened censorship (glasnost), tried to reform the economy (perestroika) and made clear the USSR would no longer send tanks to keep Eastern European governments in power. In 1989 those governments fell one after another, mostly peacefully: Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and violently in Romania. A failed hardline coup against Gorbachev in August 1991 sped up the Soviet republics' moves to independence, and the USSR was formally dissolved at the end of December.

How historians explain the Cold War

Exams often ask who was to blame for starting it.

• Orthodox view. Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe after 1945 forced the US to respond. This was the common Western view in the 1950s.
• Revisionist view. The US, with the bomb and the biggest economy, pushed for open markets and influence, and the USSR reacted defensively after losing over 20 million people in the war. This view grew in the 1960s during Vietnam.
• Post-revisionist view. Both sides misread each other, and mutual fear, more than one side's plan, created the conflict. Historians such as John Lewis Gaddis worked on this synthesis, and after Soviet archives partly opened in the 1990s Gaddis put more weight on Stalin.

As with any blame question, a good answer picks a view, uses dated evidence, and shows it knows the others.

The mistakes that lose marks

• Saying the USA and USSR fought each other. They never fought directly. The wars were proxy wars.
• Confusing containment with rollback. Containment held the line. Rollback, pushing communism back, was talked about but mostly not attempted in Europe.
• Putting the Berlin Wall in 1948. 1948 is the blockade. The wall is 1961.
• Saying the Cold War ended in 1989. The wall fell in 1989. The USSR ended in December 1991, and that is the usual end date.
• Treating detente as friendship. It was managed rivalry. Both sides kept building weapons and backing proxies.
• Forgetting Asia. Korea, China and Vietnam are half the story, not a footnote.

A scene plan for a five minute video

The best visual for the Cold War is a single tension line running left to right across 46 years, with a thermometer or a fuse that rises and falls, and a world map you return to. How to explain a timeline in a video covers keeping a long timeline readable.

1. Two figures at a table in 1945, allies. The question on screen: how did allies become enemies without ever fighting?
2. The map of Europe with the Iron Curtain drawn down it.
3. Containment: a line drawn around the communist world. The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan as arrows of aid.
4. Berlin: a dot inside East Germany, planes flying in, then a wall going up.
5. Korea and the 38th parallel: the first proxy war.
6. Cuba: missiles on an island 145 kilometres from Florida, the tension line at its peak.
7. Vietnam: dominoes lined up across South East Asia.
8. Detente: two leaders signing; the line drops. Then Afghanistan, and it rises again.
9. 1989: the wall opening, the map of Eastern Europe changing colour country by country.
10. December 1991: one flag lowered, fifteen new ones.

Make your own version for class

The Cold War is too long to cover evenly in five minutes. Pick one question, such as "was the Cuban Missile Crisis a turning point?", and let the timeline be the backdrop. If you are coming from the start of the century, the causes of World War I, explained visually uses the same structure, and how to make a geopolitics explainer video covers handling maps and contested claims.

1. 1

   Narrow the question

   Not 'the Cold War' but one question: who started it, why it ended, or whether Cuba was a turning point. One sentence of thesis is enough.

2. 2

   Pick 8 to 12 events from the table

   Keep the ones that support or challenge your thesis. Check each date in your textbook. Write one line on what happened and one on why it matters.

3. 3

   Write one paragraph per scene

   Open with the question, use at least two key terms correctly, include the strongest counter-argument, and end with your judgement. About 750 words is five minutes at 150 spoken words a minute.

4. 4

   Paste the script into openCanviz

   Choose Keep my wording and set a target length. The poster style suits Cold War propaganda imagery; whiteboard works for the tension line. Keep the map of Europe as a recurring element.

5. 5

   Check dates, flags and borders

   Pause on each scene. Drafted drawings can put the Berlin Wall in the wrong decade, draw today's borders, or use the wrong flag. Fix any scene in the editor before you present.

Common questions

What was the Cold War in simple terms? A 46 year rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, from 1945 to 1991, fought through arms races, spying, propaganda and proxy wars rather than direct battle between the two.

Why was it called the Cold War? Because the two superpowers never fought each other directly. The writer George Orwell used the phrase in 1945, the American adviser Bernard Baruch applied it to the US-Soviet rivalry in a 1947 speech, and the journalist Walter Lippmann's 1947 book The Cold War made it popular.

What was the closest the world came to nuclear war? The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 is the usual answer. Soviet missiles were placed in Cuba, the US imposed a naval quarantine, and for 13 days both sides were on alert before Khrushchev agreed to withdraw them.

Why did the Cold War end? A mix of Soviet economic weakness, the cost of the arms race and the war in Afghanistan, Gorbachev's decision not to use force to hold Eastern Europe, popular movements such as Solidarity in Poland, and nationalism inside the Soviet republics. Historians weigh these differently.

When did the Cold War end? Most historians date the end to the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991. Some point to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 or to the summits of 1989 to 1990.