The Cold War was the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies, for geopolitical and military dominance, as they built up huge arsenals of destructive weapons and courted allies around the globe after World War II. However, the Cold War also entailed the use of “soft power,” as U.S. officials used cultural exchanges, trade exhibitions, and other forms of propaganda to make the American way of life, and capitalism, seem attractive to friends and enemies alike. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in particular, hoped that international exhibitions could both promote peaceful understanding and offer a cheaper alternative to the costly arms race being waged between the two superpowers. The 1959 American National Exhibition at Sokol'niki Park, a suburb of Moscow, was one such display.