The Cold War was the period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, and their respective allies, that lasted from 1947 to 1991. It is called a “cold” war because the two superpowers never fought directly, though they backed opposing sides in regional proxy conflicts across the globe.
The rivalry shaped nearly every dimension of international life for four decades: ideological competition between capitalism and communism, an arms race in conventional and nuclear weapons, the Space Race, espionage networks, propaganda, and economic embargoes. Europe was divided by an Iron Curtain after 1945, with the USSR installing satellite governments in the east and the US launching the Marshall Plan and founding NATO in the west. Flashpoints included the Berlin Blockade (1948–49), the Korean War (1950–53), the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) — the closest approach to nuclear war — and the Vietnam War (1955–75). Many newly decolonised nations became Cold War battlegrounds as both superpowers vied for influence through economic aid, military support and covert intervention. The conflict ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
