The Cold War

There was a lot of conflict between the military, between Eastern and Western Europe called the iron curtain. Europe had been divided, there was a lot of tension especially in Berlin. The most hunting battle in the cold war era was the one that never happened. It took place in Cuba when Fidel Castro took power in 1959, the nationalization of American assets provoked great U.S. hostility and efforts to over throw his regime. The Americans wanted to overthrow Cuba but the Soviet Union wanted Cuba to turn communist. I think that the U.S. had a fear that that Cuba was going to stay communist and in some way harm them.
There are two failures of the communist experience. the first was economic, communist economics by the late 1970s showed signs of catching up to more advanced capitalist countries. The second failure was moral. The horrors of Stalin's terror and the gulag, of Mao's culture revolution, approaching genocide in communist Cambodia. All this for away at communist clams to moral superiority over capitalism. The communist leaders were aware of this problems but the way they were approached were not the best.