Korea and the Cold War

The Cold War is the name given to the conflict that developed between the United States and the Soviet Union after the Second World War. Simply put, the Cold War was a conflict of opposing ideologies - capitalism and communism. Although there were no actual battles or physical conflicts, the fear and hostility it produced on both sides made it a war as dangerous as any other.

The US/USSR antagonism began in postwar Europe, when the Soviet Union brought Eastern Europe under its control and the United States exerted its influence in Western Europe. Germany had been divided into two nations; the wall that separated its former capital Berlin, came to symbolise the mutual exclusion of the two ideologies. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 signalled the end of the Cold War; the breakdown of the Soviet Union soon followed, in 1991. For more details see the list of significant Cold War events.

The fight over Korea in the 1950s was a turning point, when the ideological conflict extended beyond Europe and broke out in open warfare. It transformed a civil conflict into an armed confrontation between the major powers of the world.