The Cold War was an important period in United States history. Beginning right after World War II ended, there was a continual sense of tension between the United States and Russia until the 1980's. The United States, along with other Western European nations, wanted to keep the Soviet Union from gaining any more territory in Eastern Europe. Many people felt that the United States, along with other nations, had already let the Russians go too far in their quest for expansion. Winston Churchill stated in his speech "The Sinews of Peace" that, "...an iron curtain has descended across the [European] Continent" (Churchill). Truman, the president of the United States during the beginnings of the Cold War, wanted to avoid another conflict that could lead to a global war, since the world was just recovering from World War II. Truman applied a policy of containment that allowed him to keep the Soviets from expanding any further across the European and Asian continents, but allowed Stalin, the leader of Soviet Russia, to keep the land that he had already acquired. According to one scholar, "The Cold War came to be seen as a process in which two rival powers were expanding, not by direct confrontation, but by subtle means, at different points, and...from the American perspective, in a way that was undemocratic, unfair, that was reflective of sinister, totalitarian governments...if there was not going to be a hot war, there still needed to be a sense of vigilance" (Jonathan Chu). Although there would not be any true military confrontations between the United States and the Soviet Union, both countries kept a watchful eye on one another.
             The Cold War was a period of competition, tension, and conflict short of full-scale war, exemplified by an awareness of unfriendly intentions between military and political alliances. There were military conflicts, however these battles were fought by Soviet allies, such...