Cold War
The Cold War lasted from roughly 1946 to 1991 and was primarily an ideological war between Capitalism and Communism.
On one side as the United States and western Europe (also known as NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization). At the time of 'A Time For Choosing', 'Encroaching Control' and 'Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine' speeches, NATO consisted of: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and (West) Germany.
On the other was the Soviet Union and its satellite states (sometimes referred to as the Warsaw Pact or Eastern Bloc countries). The 1961-64 Warsaw Pact consisted of: Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, (East) Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union.
Speech Relevance
The Cold War is of primary importance in many of Reagan's speeches because of its status as a ideological war. Reagan not only fought the war of words against Soviet interests, but against the socialist supporters within the the United States who meant to convert us by the ballot box rather than the gun barrel.
