The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction

The Cold War originated in Europe.

Subsequently, in Asia, the Cold War turned into a hot war, first with the Korean War and then the Vietnam War. All the world's conflicts and tensions were magnified by the Cold War. From the Korean Peninsula, across the Taiwan Strait, extending to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Central America, almost every corner was drawn into the Cold War.

Nuclear weapons, with their potential for absolute destruction, both escalated the confrontation and maintained a balance of terror.

A conflict in one place could trigger a series of interventions by other countries, drawing the bowstring tighter towards war.

Is the "end" of the Cold War also an American-centric narrative? Because the dissolution of the Soviet Union meant that the United States could prove that its "superior" system ultimately "won" the Cold War. But has the Cold War truly ended?

The Cold War, with the unification of Vietnam, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, seemed to have ended. For many countries, the Cold War might have merely become a term in history textbooks, a tourist attraction, or a historical backdrop in movies and novels. However, for those of us in East Asia, the increasingly tense situations in the Taiwan Strait and on the Korean Peninsula indicate that the specter of the Cold War still lingers in East Asia.