The Cold War was a post-WWII period of global social and political instability between the end of World War II in 1945 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The period saw a competition between two superpowers; the capitalist/liberal United States and the communist/socialist Soviet Union, over world domination. With both sides competing on several front short of an actual war, with them backing various political groups and involved in a proxy wars and revolutions/regime changes along with technological and economical competition.