What was the Cold War?
The Cold War was a long rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union from about 1947 to 1991. The two superpowers competed for power without fighting each other directly.
After World War II, the capitalist United States and its allies faced the communist Soviet Union and its allies. Europe was divided by what Winston Churchill called an iron curtain. Military alliances formed: NATO in 1949 and the Warsaw Pact in 1955.
Both sides built huge nuclear arsenals and competed in science, sports and the Space Race. The rivalry led to dangerous moments such as the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, and to wars in other countries, including Korea and Vietnam.
How it ended
In the 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced reforms called glasnost and perestroika. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Germany reunified in 1990 and the Soviet Union broke up into 15 countries in December 1991, ending the Cold War.
Did You Know?
The term cold war describes conflict without direct large-scale fighting between the main rivals. It was popularized in 1947 by American advisor Bernard Baruch and journalist Walter Lippmann.