ABSTRACT
The Cold War, the great superpower stand-off between the USA and the Soviet Union, the confrontation between Communism and Western values, was not a formal or frontal conflict between the superpowers, but a period of sustained hostility involving a protracted arms race, as well as numerous proxy conflicts in which the major powers intervened in other struggles. These conflicts, in turn, sustained attitudes of animosity in the USA, the Soviet Union and elsewhere, exacerbated fears, and contributed to a high level of military preparedness, including the most serious arms race in history, one indeed that led to the prospect of the devastation of much of the world through the use of atomic weaponry.
