-300000-17000 =For over 40 years after the end of the Second World War, the world was divided into two hostile armed camps. The Soviet Union and its Communist allies confronted the Western alliance headed by the United States. Because both sides had incredibly destructive armouries of nuclear weapons, they could not fight each other directly. Instead, they confronted one another in a "Cold War" of propaganda and espionage. Both the Soviets and the Western allies struggled to extend their influence in other parts of the world and backed opposing sides in local wars across the globe.
