The Cold War began due to rising tensions between the Western powers and the Soviet Union following World War II over the political and economic control of Eastern Europe and the promotion of opposing political-economic ideologies. This ideological conflict escalated an arms race between the two sides, including testing of nuclear weapons as depicted in the images, heightening fears of a potential global nuclear war.
3. A nuclear test explosion at the Nevada Test Site, April
18, 1953. U.S. Department of Energy photograph
4. A dancer who is part of the promotion of nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site, with
a mushroom cloud in the background , April 6, 1953. U.S. Department of Energy
photograph