Cold War

The Cold War was a nuclear standoff between the constitutional republic-supporting United States of America and the communist Soviet Union. It was not a true war because there was no direct fighting on either side; rather, the two countries largely engaged in a proxy war through conflicts in Cuba, Vietnam, and other places. The Cold War is one of several time periods in which World Conqueror 2 and World Conqueror 3 take place. Strangely, in the World Conqueror series, the Cold War features actual warfare between the United States and the Soviet Union.

History
In the final days of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union, two Allies, began to develop a rivalry, as both nations realized that the areas that they conquered during the conflict would adhere to the conqueror's political ideology. Therefore, the Soviet Union attempted to have a presence in Eastern Europe and Asia, and rushed to Berlin, the capital of Germany, in order to have political control over the influential Central European country. However, the United States and the other western nations had a presence in western Germany. It was agreed to divide Germany and Berlin into four parts, administrated by the U.S., the U.S.S.R., Great Britain, and France. Recognizing the situation, an alliance known as NATO was formed by the western allies in an attempt to check the power of the Soviet Union, which responded by forming the WTO with its Eastern European allies.

The countries occupied by the Soviet Union, such as Hungary, which became communist in 1956, were referred to as being behind the Iron Curtain. In 1961, the Soviet Union cut off their side of Berlin by building the Berlin Wall, which became a symbol of the Cold War. The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in 1962 over the communist takeover of Cuba, and almost resulted in war between the United States and the Soviet Union.

In Asia, the Republic of China fell to the communist People's Republic of China in 1949, and between 1950 and 1953, the communist North Korea battled NATO-supported South Korea. The Vietnam War was fought for nearly twenty years, until communist North Vietnam secured victory against the United States and its allies. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in late 1979, sparking widespread condemnation in the west.

Relations between the Soviet Union and the United States began to improve in the United States under American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1989, Poland started a wave of revolutions in communist countries in Europe and the Berlin Wall was destroyed. The power of communism started to falter, and the Soviet Union disbanded in 1991, bringing an end to the Cold War.