soviet union

The Cold War

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  Although the origins of the so-called Cold War can be traced back to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, this intense ideological struggle between the Western powers and the Soviet Union really began after the Second World War.

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• Page 3 – Choosing sides

  New Zealand backed Britain and the United States against the Soviet Union as the Cold War began in the late 1940s. Like the other Western Allies, New Zealand’s relationship

• Page 5 – South-East Asia

  During the 1950s the focus of New Zealand’s defence strategy shifted from the Middle East to Asia.

• Page 7 – Last decade

  Soviet-American tensions revived in the late 1970s as ‘détente’ (co-operation) gave way to a renewed arms race.