The cold war began after WWII in 1947 and ended in 1991 between the United States and the Soviet Union over who would control the world. The Cold War affected the nation worldwide and initiated many bloody battles.

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Communist Nationalist

The civil war in china was between Mao Zedong and Kuomintang, also known as Jiang Jieshi. Zedong's Chinese communist party and the Jieshi's nationalist party began to fight over who would control Northern China and Northeast China (Manchuria). It began with deployments and then military clashes in 1927 to 1950.

The Korean War (1950-1953) began when the North Korean Communist army crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded non-Communist South Korea. As Kim Il-sung's North Korean army, armed with Soviet tanks, quickly overran South Korea, the United States came to South Korea's aid.

Vietnam War

It was a direct result of the First Indochina War (1946–1954) between France, which claimed Vietnam as a colony, and the communist forces then known as Viet Minh. In 1973 a “third” Vietnam war began—a continuation, actually—between North and South Vietnam but without significant U.S. involvement.

Association of Nonaligned Nations

Many nations were struggling and sought aid from these superpowers (Soviet Union, U.S. and sometimes China), but many others chose not to get involved. They formed a third force of countries that weren't aligned after the Bandung Conference (Asian and African leaders met in 1955).

The Cuban Revolution

Cuba was led by a dictator, Fulgenio Batista in the 1950's. The U.S. supported Batista. He led the revolution, in which people began to praise Castro for making changes, but he was also a harsh dictator. He suspended elections, executed political opponents and controlled the press. Castro nationalized the Cuban economy and took over U.S. owned sugar mills and refineries. Cuba looked to the Soviet Union for economic and military aid. The U.S. then began training anti- Castro Cuban exiles who then carried out the Bay of Pigs invasion, which turned out to be a huge failure and embarrassment for the U.S.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion gave the Soviets confidence that the U.S. would not attempt to stop Soviet expansion in Latin America and Khrushchev started to build missile sites in Cuba. U.S. spy planes spotted these and ordered their removal, Khrushchev agreed to the U.S. as it promised not to invade Cuba. It lasted for 13 days.

Civil war in Nicaragua

The U.S. supported the dictatorship of Anastacio Somoza since 1933. It supported the anti- communist rebels in Nicaragua, they were called the Contras (Scandal). It encompassed the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship. The initial overthrow of the Somoza regime in 1978-79 was a bloody affair, the Contra War took the lives of tens of thousands of men.