Usually it is said that with the fall of the USSR, the cold war ended (1991). as a person alive currently with eyes I beg to differ.
I feel like its important to get into just a bit history before I get into my opinions.
1917, October revolution, and Lenin, with that the USSR was born. for the early parts of it, Communism was seen as a queer novelty, alot of people in America were curious about it even. This was till the 50s; a history book will tell you that this is because of the horrors of communism being brought to light... in reality it was because the red army won world war 2 and that was inconvenient for the then current administration, who thought that Communism was a risk to the western world (it wasnt) and wanted to quickly take it out while the guns were hot, despite them being the very people who helped stop the axis powers not even a decade before.
this is the start of the cold war realistically.
the theory was that The West needed to crush communism before it started. Where was this in 1950? north korea, A country that at the time was being propped up by the USSR and China, both communist dictatorships. what did America decide to do? to go war... great idea! not only were American troops not ready for the eastern climate, but they also were not ready for how good of a military north korea had due to BEING FUCKING PROPPED UP BY CHINA AND THE USSR. who wouldve guessed, truly nobody couldve seen this coming.
before someone says it yes I know the US wasnt the only group in the korean war, this isnt a retellimg im trying to give people the idea quickly
after the conflict was frozen, Americas war machine needed another war. Where did they look? Vietnam, will they learn from the mistakes they made last time? apparently not. (we went for the same reasons, crush communism before it started)
Anyways, The Vietnam war was more generally seen as an uneeded war, is that due to the cultural shift that was starting? maybe! or maybe people were finally fucking sick of war, we have always had a war since world war 1. (I see no issues with that...) Either way it went just about as bad as youd expect it to, American troops were still not used to the climate, nor the type of combat. This was the popularization of guerrilla warfare within the general public, it just didnt catch on with Francis Marion durring the Revolutionary War.
two failed wars later and America was feeling a little scared by the USSR, they were better at most things that didnt involve keeping its citizens alive. (think in terms of science, space, and controlling the public, the CIA was in love with the idea of that)
is any of this true? meh, idk