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The Cold War

When World War II in Europe finally came to an end on May 7, 1945, a new war was just beginning. The Cold War: denoting the open yet restricted rivalry that developed between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, a war fought on political, economic, and propaganda fronts, with limited recourse to weapons, largely because of fear of a nuclear holocaust.1 This term, The Cold War, was first used by presidential advisor Bernard Baruch during a congressional debate in 1947.
Intelligence operations dominating this war have been conducted by the
Soviet State Security Service (KGB) and the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA), representing the two power blocs, East and West respectively, …show more content…

This organization had fallen into the disfavor of many involved in the federal administration at this time. This included the director of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover, who did not like competition from a rival intelligence organization. With the death of
Roosevelt in April of 1945, the OSS was disbanded under Truman and departments were either relocated or completely dissolved. Soviet intelligence began with the formation of the Cheka, secret police, under
Feliks Dzerzhinsky at the time of the revolution. By 1946, this agency had evolved into the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), and the Ministry of
State Security (MGB) both ruled by Lavrenti Beria. This man was undoubtedly the most powerful man in the Soviet Union with a vast empire of prison camps, and informants to crush any traces of dissent. Of considerable importance to Beria was the race for the atomic bomb. The Soviet Union and the United States both plundered the German V-2 rocket sites for materials and personnel. In 1946 the MVD was responsible for the rounding up of 6000 scientists from the Soviet zone of Germany and taking them and their dependents to the Soviet Union.2 The political conflicts of the 1930's and
World War II left many educated people with the impression that only communism could combat economic depression and fascism. It was easy for
Soviet agents to recruit men who would

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