The Cold War was the opposite of a Hot War. It was a conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, which lasted from the 1940s through the 1990s, but it was always fought by proxy (Cuba, North and South Vietnam, East and West Germany, Afghanistan, etc.). The United States and the Soviet Union never directly fought each other, in large part because of the fear of nuclear weapons, which both countries possessed in large numbers. The Cold war can be considered more a “diplomatic w...