Cold War

The Cold War was a state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its allies in the Warsaw Pact).

Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but 1947–91 is common. The term "cold" is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary wartime alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the USSR and the US as two superpowers with profound economic and political differences: the former being a single-party Marxist–Leninist state operating a planned economy and controlled press and owning exclusively the right to establish and govern communities, and the latter being a capitalist state with generally free elections and press, which also granted freedom of expression and freedom of association to its citizens. A self-proclaimed neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement founded by Egypt, India, Indonesia and Yugoslavia; this faction rejected association with either the US-led West or the Soviet-led East. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were heavily armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. Each side had a nuclear deterrent that deterred an attack by the other side, on the basis that such an attack would lead to total destruction of the attacker: the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD). Aside from the development of the two sides' nuclear arsenals, and deployment of conventional military forces, the struggle for dominance was expressed via proxy wars around the globe, psychological warfare, massive propaganda campaigns and espionage, rivalry at sports events, and technological competitions such as the Space Race.

Cold war (general term)

A cold war or cold warfare is a state of conflict between nations that does not involve direct military action but is pursued primarily through economic and political actions, propaganda, acts of espionage or proxy wars waged by surrogates. The surrogates are typically states that are "satellites" of the conflicting nations, i.e., nations allied to them or under their political influence. Opponents in a cold war will often provide economic or military aid, such as weapons, tactical support or military advisors, to lesser nations involved in conflicts with the opposing country.

Origins of the term

The expression "cold war" has historically had a number of meanings. In the fourteenth century, Don Juan Manuel referred to the conflict between Christianity and Islam as a "cold war" and defined the distinguishing characteristics between a cold war and a hot war. "War that is very fierce and very hot ends either with death or peace, whereas a cold war neither brings peace nor confers honour on those who wage it."

Cold War (video game)

Cold War is a video game developed by Czech developer Mindware Studios and published by DreamCatcher Games (Linux Game Publishing for Linux). The game is similar to the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series of games in that it uses a stealth-action system of gameplay. The game distinguishes itself by adding an item invention system where the player can use seemingly useless objects to create new tools and weapons. Also, the story of the game centers on a civilian reporter, so no extremely acrobatic moves are available to the player. Another aspect of the game is that the player can take many different approaches to winning the game. The game was released in North America for Microsoft Windows and Xbox on September 27, 2005. The Linux version was released on August 4, 2006.

Plot

Cold War takes place in 1986 and follows the story of a freelance journalist Matthew Carter who finds himself in the midst of an international conspiracy that aims to control the U.S.S.R.. Twelve hours after arriving in Moscow in hopes of gathering material for a Pulitzer Prize winning story, he finds himself thrown into KGB's political prison and framed for an attempted murder of the president. The reason for this was unknown, however, a unidentified female agent placed a prototype X-Ray camera in replacement with his original one. Carter noticed this unknown device and decided to capture a fire extinguisher for testing, but the chemicals in the flash powder caused the object to explode, making him visible to the guards.