The Cold War was a series of competitions between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. that lasted from 1945-1991.  The two "Super Powers" replaced the old Great Power system of Europe which was destroyed by the World Wars.

     The two countries battled for supremacy in every manner possible, including: space, weapons, sports, political alliances, culture, and technology.  Childish seeming at times, the Cold War resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, even though war was never declared.  Symbolic of the conflict, the fall of the Berlin Wall signalled the end of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

     Th U.S. commited combat troops in Korea and Vietnam to stop the spread of communism.  In those two conflicts, nearly 100,000 American troops were lost.  Though the Cold War is over, tensions remain between the Super-Powers twenty-five years later along with thousands of nuclear weapons.