Cold War

The global confrontation between two superpowers — the USA and the USSR — that lasted from 1947 to 1991. The Cold War was not a conventional war with battles and front lines. It was a competition of ideologies, technologies, and influence that engulfed the entire world — from outer space to the jungles of Vietnam. Nuclear weapons made direct war impossible, so the superpowers fought through espionage, propaganda, economic pressure, and "hot" conflicts in third countries. The result: the collapse of the USSR, the reunification of Europe, and a new world order.