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What was the cold war?

So I cant figure what the cold war is. people try to explain it but it doesn’t seem to stick can someone explain it without giving me a headache?

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Answer #1

The cold war was political tensions, arms race, and proxy wars between the US and its allies who promoted the capitalist economic ideology and the USSR its allies who promoted the communist economic ideology. An all-out war between the two groups would have had devastating consequences and at certain times in history seemed inevitable.

Answer #2

The Cold War was not a single event or series of events. It is used to describe the period of time from the end of World War II until the collapse of the Soviet Union. During that time, the US and the USSR became increasingly paranoid regarding each other’s military might. There was virtually no communication flowing between the two powers, which only made matters worse, and the only way they engaged each other at all was by making grand technological and military gestures designed to cow the other into submission.

There was enormous military buildup between the two nations, and the world was brought to the brink of nuclear war on at least one significant occasion. In the end, the USSR could not sustain its military expansion (among other things), it fragmented, and for all intents and purposes, Western communism collapsed.