The "Cold War" was period of strained diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union (USSR), a communist-governed nation, and an organization called NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) beginning roughly at the end of World War II. Relations, especially between the USSR and the United States (USA), were very tense, a feeling that was exacerbated by the presence of nuclear weapons the USSR and USA had built and aimed at each other during the "arms" race following the use of the world's first atomic bombs by the USA on Japan at the end of World War II. Both nations felt that nuclear war was a very real threat and sought to out-do each other by producing as many atomic weapons as possible.
History[]
Richard Nixon and his advisors reviewing a possible nuclear war scenario.
It was during the early part of the 1950s that Senator Joseph McCarthy fueled public tensions by announcing that communists and others suspected of sympathizing or allying themselves with communists were operating within the borders of the USA. McCarthy and his followers began publicly accusing individuals of being communist without proof. A distant parallel to this event can be seen in the efforts of Senator Joseph David Keene to ban costumed adventuring.
Also taking place during the early 1950s was the Korean War, involving the United States and the communist contingency that attempted to seize control of Korea. The result was an eventual treaty with no real victor; the country was divided into two nations at the 38th degree of latitude, where a "demilitarized zone" (DMZ) was established that neither nation would violate.
The Vietnam War was also a byproduct of the Cold War. United States government and military officials believed that the takeover of Vietnam by Ho Chi Minh, the communist party leader of that Southeastern Asian country, would create a "domino" effect that would lead to the communist seizure of more nations of the world. The Comedian and Dr. Manhattan intervenes in the Vietnam War and brings it to an end with the USA victorious. Vietnam would later be annexed by the United States, eventually becoming the 51st State admitted to the Union.
Richard Nixon at NORAD Headquarters preparing for war against the Soviet Union.
The ultimate end of the Cold War was achieved a few years later. When Adrian Veidt got rid of Dr. Manhattan causing him to retreat on Mars, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, which led many observers to assume that the worst was yet to come.
Adrian Veidt's would then murder three million New York City residents by teleporting a giant alien creature there, its psychic shockwave killing anyone near to the epicenter of the event. The resulting horror of the event, coupled with world leaders' false realization that a greater threat loomed in the form of Dimensional Incursion Events, forced the United States and the Soviet Union to seek rapport. The Cold War would dissipate as the United States and the Soviet Union made peace.
Doomsday Clock[]
However, Veidt's plan to bring the world powers together would end up proving fruitless. In 1992, President Robert Redford announce to the world the nature of Veidt's plan to kill three million New Yorkers, prompting accusations from the Russian Federation that the United States had covered up Veidt's plan for its own benefit. In a short matter of weeks, international relations around the world would collapse, with the European Union breaking apart, the Vice President of the United States holding the Prime Minister of Israel hostage, and North Korea developing missiles that could reach as far as Texas. In response to the Russians invading Poland, the United States begins firing nuclear weapons at Russia, triggering the apocalypse Veidt had wanted to prevent. However, thanks to the work of Doctor Manhattan after time spent in the Earth of the DC Universe, he returns to a destroyed New York City and reverts the timeline by removing the nuclear arsenals of the world from existence. Veidt is placed under a lengthy house arrest at his headquarters in Manhattan, and it can be assumed that the world would enter a new age of peace.
Conflict List[]
- Vietnam War
- American bombing of Beirut
- Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
Trivia[]
- The actual invasion in Afghanistan took place in 1979 but it seems that in the graphic novel Dr. Manhattan's presence stopped the Soviets. The invasion lead to a 10-year war that the USSR eventually lost, with mostly Islamic-inspired Afghan "mujahideen" tribes of the country uniting under U.S. military support to fight the USSR.
- As a result, the Cold War ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union because the war, among other factors, drained the Soviet finances and also due to lengthy diplomatic negotiations between the USSR's last standing president, Mikhail Gorbachev and the U.S. president of the time, Ronald Reagan, culminating in the official declaration of the end of the Cold War in 1989. The Soviet Union would collapse a mere three years later, breaking up into multiple successor states, the Russian Federation being the largest.