Amelia powell
Cuba
In 1962, Cold War came very close to erupting into a nuclear war and this crisis was termed the Cuban Missile Crisis in the United States. For USSR, Cuba was an ideal location to place intermediate range missile to intimidate the American government. American missiles were positioned to be able to reach the Soviet lands; however, USSR did not have the technology or a secure position to have their missile reach the United States. USSR's decision to place nuclear warheads came as a response to the United States's placement of two missiles, Jupiter and Thor, in Turkey. Cold War was a game of intimidation and fear; therefore, for USSR, having control over Cuba meant an ultimate threat to the United States's national security.
Korea
One of the biggest concerns during the Cold War between the USSR and the United States was expanding their sphere of influence around the globe. Furthermore, this was one of the main reasons to the development of conflicts in Afghanistan and Vietnam. After the Japanese occupation, USSR got a hold of the North and the United States got a hold of the South and during the 5 year recuperation period for Korea, two different political ideologies deeply rooted itself in Korea. To make it simple, for the USSR, North Korea was a type of buffer zone in the East; for the United States, South Korea was another "outpost" to keep the Soviet in check.
The United states
The United States government was initially hostile to the Soviet leaders for taking Russia out of World War I and was opposed to a state ideologically based on communism. Although the United States embarked on a famine relief program in the Soviet Union in the early 1920s and American businessmen established commercial ties there during the period of the New Economic Policy (1921-29), the two countries did not establish diplomatic relations until 1933. By that time, the totalitarian nature of Joseph Stalin's regime presented an insurmountable obstacle to friendly relations with the West. Although World War II brought the two countries into alliance, based on the common aim of defeating Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union's aggressive, antidemocratic policy toward Eastern Europe had created tensions even before the war ended.
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union and the United States stayed far apart during the next three decades of superpower conflict and the nuclear and missile arms race. Beginning in the early 1970s, the Soviet regime proclaimed a policy of dtente and sought increased economic cooperation and disarmament negotiations with the West. However, the Soviet stance on human rights and its invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 created new tensions between the two countries. These tensions continued to exist until the dramatic democratic changes of 1989-91 led to the collapse during this past year of the Communist system and opened the way for an unprecedented new friendship between the United States and Russia, as well as the other new nations of the former Soviet Union.