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Cold War on Five Continents: A Global History of Empire and Espionage
The Cold War on Five Continents offers an original, provocative analysis of the Cold War, which was nothing less than the largest, longest, and most consequential conflict in modern world history.
Instead of focusing on the doings of leaders in Moscow and Washington that fill most conventional accounts, this book uses a bottom-up, outside-in approach to explore the surrogate wars on five continents that caused at least 20 million deaths. Not only did these regional wars in Africa, Asia, and Latin America transform their Cold War battlegrounds into veritable wastelands, but they also left behind a legacy of collective trauma and social conflict that persisted for decades, often right to the present.
McCoy offers intimate personal portraits of both the battle-hardened World War II generation who conducted covert operations on the disparate frontiers of empire and the younger activists who mobilized millions of citizens for long years of antiwar protests that helped end this global conflict. Through such a novel multi-generational analysis, this account humanizes the history of the Cold War, which has too often been told in terms of impersonal elements like economic growth, nuclear arsenals, or diplomatic ententes.
By showing how otherwise ordinary individuals fought this monumental war and brought its threat of nuclear holocaust to an end, this account has important lessons about the possibilities of change for today’s younger generations, who are facing the challenge of climate change in a world where the great powers are devoting humanity’s scarce resources to a “new cold war.”
Instead of focusing on the doings of leaders in Moscow and Washington that fill most conventional accounts, this book uses a bottom-up, outside-in approach to explore the surrogate wars on five continents that caused at least 20 million deaths. Not only did these regional wars in Africa, Asia, and Latin America transform their Cold War battlegrounds into veritable wastelands, but they also left behind a legacy of collective trauma and social conflict that persisted for decades, often right to the present.
McCoy offers intimate personal portraits of both the battle-hardened World War II generation who conducted covert operations on the disparate frontiers of empire and the younger activists who mobilized millions of citizens for long years of antiwar protests that helped end this global conflict. Through such a novel multi-generational analysis, this account humanizes the history of the Cold War, which has too often been told in terms of impersonal elements like economic growth, nuclear arsenals, or diplomatic ententes.
By showing how otherwise ordinary individuals fought this monumental war and brought its threat of nuclear holocaust to an end, this account has important lessons about the possibilities of change for today’s younger generations, who are facing the challenge of climate change in a world where the great powers are devoting humanity’s scarce resources to a “new cold war.”
584 pages, Paperback
First published December 9, 2025
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About the author
Alfred W. McCoy
31 books351 followersDr Alfred W. McCoy is professor of SE Asian History at the U. of Wisconsin at Madison where he also serves as director of the Center for SE Asian Studies, a federally-funded National Resource Center. He's spent the past quarter-century writing about the politics & history of the opium trade. In addition to publications, he serves as a correspondent for the Observatoire Geopolitique des Drogues in Paris & was plenary speaker at their '92 conference in Paris sponsored by the European Community. In '93, he presented a paper on the Mafia & the Asian heroin trade at the Conference in Honor of Giovanni Falcone in Palermo, Sicily. In 3/96, he was the plenary speaker at the 7th International Conference on Drug Harm Reduction in Hobart, Australia. He's served as expert witness & consultant to the Canadian Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical use of Drugs, the Australian Royal Commission of Inquiry into Drugs, the Minister of Administrative Services, Victoria State Parliament, & the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Drug Enforcement Policy & Support in the Office of the US Secretary of Defense. Recently, he worked as consultant & commentator for a tv documentary on the global heroin traffic produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, accompanying the crew to locations in Burma, Thailand, Vietnam & Laos.
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January 1, 2026
“During the 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower authorized 170 major CIA covert operations in forty-eight nations, making the Agency Washington’s prime instrument for force projection in the Cold War’s first, formative decade.” “The US would spend a total of $12.4 trillion on defense from 1950 to 1990, for an average of $303 billion per year – far more than any other nation.” During the Cold War, US leaders openly supported dictators as long as they were openly anti-communist or allowed penetration by US finance capital to the detriment of citizens of that country. Ike referred to these complaint dictators as OUR S.O.B.’s. Similarly, today’s US liberals are ok with billionaires just as long as they are OUR (democratic) billionaires. Alfred calls Cold War US policy, “setting aside democratic principles to back almost any reliably loyal leader, whether dictator or democrat.” Alfred calls NY socialite Mary Pinchot a “great beauty” on page 36. Visual fact checkers will quickly notice Mary Pinchot would have been lucky to be a restaurant hostess.
South Korean dictator Syngman Rhee ruled for 15 years before the US found him too embarrassingly repressive to keep in office, leaving behind a South Korea that was “still an underdeveloped agricultural nation with widespread poverty.” Alfred says, “The Korean War brought the Cold War to Asia, starting a quarter century of armed conflict” but will not mention in a book on the Cold War that most subsequent Cold War deaths in Asia were by the US and not by the Soviet Union or China. Saudi Arabia went from producing 1,400 barrels of oil daily in 1938 to 246,000 in 1947. The Middle East’s share of world oil production went from 7% in in 1945 to 35% in 1973. In 1935, Reza Shah changed his country’s name from Persia to Iran”. In ’53 the CIA overthrows Iran’s Mosaddegh to stop his nationalization of Iranian oil – the US ends up 40% of Iran’s oil production post-coup. The CIA paid Iranian criminals (who normally collected protection money) to pull off that ’35 coup. Getting rid of democratically elected Mosaddegh only cost the CIA $20 million and around 300 dead Iranians. The incoming US puppet dictator (the Shah) delusionally thought the people loved and preferred him over Mosaddegh. Eisenhower’s inexpensive CIA success in Iran got Ike harder than nailing Mamie after a good golf game. “Seduced by the allure of that success”, Eisenhower authorized “during his eight years in office, 170 covert interventions in forty-eight nations compared to only one conventional military invasion.” Even US sociopath Madeleine Albright later admitted that Mosaddegh’s overthrow “was clearly a setback for Iran’s political development” and that the US installed Shah “brutally repressed political dissent.”
Cuba & Dominican Republic: “After Batista’s 1952 coup, US organized crime invested millions of dollars to make Havana a virtual (shady) Mecca for American tourists” – it employed 20% of Havana’s workforce. I’d love to see a book on the history of similarities, differences, and collusions between US foreign policy and the Mafia since WWII. In the Dominican Republic, the CIA ended Rafael Trujillo’s 30 year “reign of terror” because it worried that like Batista, Trujillo might cause a revolution and so installed Juan Bosch. But Bosch seemed too Left and so LBJ replaced him with dictator Joaquin Balaguer who for 12 years “presided over the torture, death and disappearance of 11,000 people.” Mission accomplished.
Congo & Southeast Asia: Then Washington backed Congo’s dictator Mobutu for 32 years (even though he stashed the $6 billion he stole from IMF loans in offshore bank accounts) until Congo’s economy (not surprisingly) collapsed. By that point, half of Congo’s “children died by the age of five.” Vietnam was a shitshow, but did you know that by the war’s end, “the VC had infiltrated 30,000 communist spies into every facet of Saigon’s security services.” Those numbers made the VC back then “by far the biggest agent network in the history of espionage.” Impressive. Back in 1951 the US began providing 75 to 80% of the funds France used to keep the Vietnamese from choosing its own government. “The (1968) Tet Offensive would mark the end of any chance for victory in Vietnam.” The CIA’s William Colby said the US Phoenix Program “killed 20,587 people since its inception in 1968; therefore, the Phoenix Program was only created after there was no chance of the US winning the war – how sadistically unnecessary was that? When the US finally pulled its soldiers from Vietnam, 34% of them were “habitual heroin users, and most units were no longer capable of effective combat.” Pause to wave the flag. The US dropped 2.1 million tons of bombs during ALL of WWII, yet did you know it dropped even more, a whopping 2.5 million tons, JUST on Laos (which took 580,000 bombing sorties). Either the US really hated farmers A LOT (Laos being largely agricultural), or it has a sadistic side that is off the charts – if Hitler or Muslims dropped that many bombs on Laos, that fact alone would be taught in US schools.
The September 11th, 1973, US orchestrated Chilean Coup against Allende lasted only seven hours – after which, the US approved replacement Pinochet (who was in power for 17 years), had tortured over 40,000 civilians. Cold War Question: Did the US ever bring anyone to power who didn’t torture civilians? Fun Fact: in 1980 the US gave Honduras $4 million in aid, while in 1985 the US gave it $200 million – you know, funding CIA torture training and illegally supporting the murderous Contra against fellow humans is NOT cheap. There’s an unwritten story of innocent migrants fleeing gang violence who immigrated to the US from Central American countries fucked up by the US. In 2018, the Vatican canonized the martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero.
President Reagan, who said “peace is the highest aspiration of the American people”, approved the mining Nicaragua’s deep-water ports “in an effort to cripple the country’s economy.” Even right-winger Barry Goldwater acknowledged that the CIA and Reagan were involved. Committing war crimes for “peace”, no doubt. The $2 trillion dollar Iraq War killed 4,500 US soldiers and killed “about one million Iraqi civilians” and for five minutes, made conservatives blush when the Abu Ghraib prison photos were released. I wonder if today “put ‘em on a leash” Lynndie England, post-Abu Ghraib runs a successful OnlyFans domination site?
Fun Russia Facts: Brezhnev died in 1982, Andropov died in 1984, and Chernenko died in 1985 and then Gorbachev took power. After investing $2 billion in Afghanistan’s destruction in our Soviet Union proxy war, Washington refused to pay for its reconstruction, just like we did in Vietnam. Instead, we left Afghanistan with “1.5 million dead, 5 million refugees, a ravaged economy, and warlords primed for struggle.” One more reason the US is adored everywhere. That US support for Afghan resistance to the Soviets led Afghanistan’s opium harvest to soar “from just a hundred tons annually in 1979 to 2,000 tons by 1990.” In other words, while Nancy Reagan was telling Americans “Just Say No”, her own husband was instrumental in dramatically increasing the world’s heroin output.
While the US sleeps, China has launched the “largest investment in human history, ten times bigger than the US Marshall Plan” – no, it’s not the Resurrection of Milli Vanilli’s career – it’s China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which economically integrates Eurasia at the expense of the US. ›Ya snooze, ya lose. Pride cometh before a fall. Never mind that Eurasia has 70% of the world’s population. We are all told by mainstream media how Israel thinks Iran is evil and no one should think of helping it, yet on page 364, we learn that in 1985 Israel sold Iran ninety-six Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided missiles, or TOW’s, then one month later sent 408 more TOW’s to Iran. Why, pray tell, would you sell advanced weaponry to your arch-enemy? Probably for the same reason Netanyahu generously financed Hamas for over a decade which the NYT, Times of Israel, and Haaretz all wrote stories about.
I think US liberals will like this book because they will hear about Mao killing 30 million civilians through starvation, but absolutely nothing about the total civilian death toll caused by bipartisan US Cold War foreign policy (including financial warfare) since WWII (in a book about the Cold War). It comes down hard on Putin (and China) yet doesn’t mention Yeltsin’s deeply corrupt role in the Rape of Russia by US finance capital (creating all those Russian billionaires – see Michael Hudson’s books). Alfred won’t tell you how Truman manufactured the Cold War in order to win the 1948 election by scaring the hell out of the American people as Senator Vanderburg suggested to him. Nor will Alfred mention the massive threat of NATO expansion eastward (against US assurances to Gorbachev otherwise) in provoking Russia & Putin.
What I liked first about this book (which will be published in January 2026), was that it put lots of worldwide Cold War operational stuff in one volume (hence the title) with Alfred methodically going country to country giving you how the Cold War played out in each one. What I liked MOST about this book was I always thought Vietnam War ended largely because (as shown in the film “Sir No Sir!”) troops were fragging officers and dumping bombs off-target in protest, and brass knew those disillusioned troops might soon be needed back in the US to quell anti-war protests. But this book shows the deep contribution to ending the war by a.) the VC’s infiltration of 30,000 communist spies into every facet of Saigon’s security services -“by far the biggest agent network in the history of espionage” and b.) that 34% of US troops were habitual heroin users, and c.) most units were no longer capable of effective combat. Bravo to the author for deepening my understanding of the Vietnam War and the Cold War in general.
South Korean dictator Syngman Rhee ruled for 15 years before the US found him too embarrassingly repressive to keep in office, leaving behind a South Korea that was “still an underdeveloped agricultural nation with widespread poverty.” Alfred says, “The Korean War brought the Cold War to Asia, starting a quarter century of armed conflict” but will not mention in a book on the Cold War that most subsequent Cold War deaths in Asia were by the US and not by the Soviet Union or China. Saudi Arabia went from producing 1,400 barrels of oil daily in 1938 to 246,000 in 1947. The Middle East’s share of world oil production went from 7% in in 1945 to 35% in 1973. In 1935, Reza Shah changed his country’s name from Persia to Iran”. In ’53 the CIA overthrows Iran’s Mosaddegh to stop his nationalization of Iranian oil – the US ends up 40% of Iran’s oil production post-coup. The CIA paid Iranian criminals (who normally collected protection money) to pull off that ’35 coup. Getting rid of democratically elected Mosaddegh only cost the CIA $20 million and around 300 dead Iranians. The incoming US puppet dictator (the Shah) delusionally thought the people loved and preferred him over Mosaddegh. Eisenhower’s inexpensive CIA success in Iran got Ike harder than nailing Mamie after a good golf game. “Seduced by the allure of that success”, Eisenhower authorized “during his eight years in office, 170 covert interventions in forty-eight nations compared to only one conventional military invasion.” Even US sociopath Madeleine Albright later admitted that Mosaddegh’s overthrow “was clearly a setback for Iran’s political development” and that the US installed Shah “brutally repressed political dissent.”
Cuba & Dominican Republic: “After Batista’s 1952 coup, US organized crime invested millions of dollars to make Havana a virtual (shady) Mecca for American tourists” – it employed 20% of Havana’s workforce. I’d love to see a book on the history of similarities, differences, and collusions between US foreign policy and the Mafia since WWII. In the Dominican Republic, the CIA ended Rafael Trujillo’s 30 year “reign of terror” because it worried that like Batista, Trujillo might cause a revolution and so installed Juan Bosch. But Bosch seemed too Left and so LBJ replaced him with dictator Joaquin Balaguer who for 12 years “presided over the torture, death and disappearance of 11,000 people.” Mission accomplished.
Congo & Southeast Asia: Then Washington backed Congo’s dictator Mobutu for 32 years (even though he stashed the $6 billion he stole from IMF loans in offshore bank accounts) until Congo’s economy (not surprisingly) collapsed. By that point, half of Congo’s “children died by the age of five.” Vietnam was a shitshow, but did you know that by the war’s end, “the VC had infiltrated 30,000 communist spies into every facet of Saigon’s security services.” Those numbers made the VC back then “by far the biggest agent network in the history of espionage.” Impressive. Back in 1951 the US began providing 75 to 80% of the funds France used to keep the Vietnamese from choosing its own government. “The (1968) Tet Offensive would mark the end of any chance for victory in Vietnam.” The CIA’s William Colby said the US Phoenix Program “killed 20,587 people since its inception in 1968; therefore, the Phoenix Program was only created after there was no chance of the US winning the war – how sadistically unnecessary was that? When the US finally pulled its soldiers from Vietnam, 34% of them were “habitual heroin users, and most units were no longer capable of effective combat.” Pause to wave the flag. The US dropped 2.1 million tons of bombs during ALL of WWII, yet did you know it dropped even more, a whopping 2.5 million tons, JUST on Laos (which took 580,000 bombing sorties). Either the US really hated farmers A LOT (Laos being largely agricultural), or it has a sadistic side that is off the charts – if Hitler or Muslims dropped that many bombs on Laos, that fact alone would be taught in US schools.
The September 11th, 1973, US orchestrated Chilean Coup against Allende lasted only seven hours – after which, the US approved replacement Pinochet (who was in power for 17 years), had tortured over 40,000 civilians. Cold War Question: Did the US ever bring anyone to power who didn’t torture civilians? Fun Fact: in 1980 the US gave Honduras $4 million in aid, while in 1985 the US gave it $200 million – you know, funding CIA torture training and illegally supporting the murderous Contra against fellow humans is NOT cheap. There’s an unwritten story of innocent migrants fleeing gang violence who immigrated to the US from Central American countries fucked up by the US. In 2018, the Vatican canonized the martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero.
President Reagan, who said “peace is the highest aspiration of the American people”, approved the mining Nicaragua’s deep-water ports “in an effort to cripple the country’s economy.” Even right-winger Barry Goldwater acknowledged that the CIA and Reagan were involved. Committing war crimes for “peace”, no doubt. The $2 trillion dollar Iraq War killed 4,500 US soldiers and killed “about one million Iraqi civilians” and for five minutes, made conservatives blush when the Abu Ghraib prison photos were released. I wonder if today “put ‘em on a leash” Lynndie England, post-Abu Ghraib runs a successful OnlyFans domination site?
Fun Russia Facts: Brezhnev died in 1982, Andropov died in 1984, and Chernenko died in 1985 and then Gorbachev took power. After investing $2 billion in Afghanistan’s destruction in our Soviet Union proxy war, Washington refused to pay for its reconstruction, just like we did in Vietnam. Instead, we left Afghanistan with “1.5 million dead, 5 million refugees, a ravaged economy, and warlords primed for struggle.” One more reason the US is adored everywhere. That US support for Afghan resistance to the Soviets led Afghanistan’s opium harvest to soar “from just a hundred tons annually in 1979 to 2,000 tons by 1990.” In other words, while Nancy Reagan was telling Americans “Just Say No”, her own husband was instrumental in dramatically increasing the world’s heroin output.
While the US sleeps, China has launched the “largest investment in human history, ten times bigger than the US Marshall Plan” – no, it’s not the Resurrection of Milli Vanilli’s career – it’s China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which economically integrates Eurasia at the expense of the US. ›Ya snooze, ya lose. Pride cometh before a fall. Never mind that Eurasia has 70% of the world’s population. We are all told by mainstream media how Israel thinks Iran is evil and no one should think of helping it, yet on page 364, we learn that in 1985 Israel sold Iran ninety-six Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided missiles, or TOW’s, then one month later sent 408 more TOW’s to Iran. Why, pray tell, would you sell advanced weaponry to your arch-enemy? Probably for the same reason Netanyahu generously financed Hamas for over a decade which the NYT, Times of Israel, and Haaretz all wrote stories about.
I think US liberals will like this book because they will hear about Mao killing 30 million civilians through starvation, but absolutely nothing about the total civilian death toll caused by bipartisan US Cold War foreign policy (including financial warfare) since WWII (in a book about the Cold War). It comes down hard on Putin (and China) yet doesn’t mention Yeltsin’s deeply corrupt role in the Rape of Russia by US finance capital (creating all those Russian billionaires – see Michael Hudson’s books). Alfred won’t tell you how Truman manufactured the Cold War in order to win the 1948 election by scaring the hell out of the American people as Senator Vanderburg suggested to him. Nor will Alfred mention the massive threat of NATO expansion eastward (against US assurances to Gorbachev otherwise) in provoking Russia & Putin.
What I liked first about this book (which will be published in January 2026), was that it put lots of worldwide Cold War operational stuff in one volume (hence the title) with Alfred methodically going country to country giving you how the Cold War played out in each one. What I liked MOST about this book was I always thought Vietnam War ended largely because (as shown in the film “Sir No Sir!”) troops were fragging officers and dumping bombs off-target in protest, and brass knew those disillusioned troops might soon be needed back in the US to quell anti-war protests. But this book shows the deep contribution to ending the war by a.) the VC’s infiltration of 30,000 communist spies into every facet of Saigon’s security services -“by far the biggest agent network in the history of espionage” and b.) that 34% of US troops were habitual heroin users, and c.) most units were no longer capable of effective combat. Bravo to the author for deepening my understanding of the Vietnam War and the Cold War in general.
May 2, 2026
A distinguished historian of the post-WWII era, Mccoy sets himself a set of difficult tasks in this sweeping history. On one level, it's an overview of the Cold War in the manner of Odd Arne Westad's The Global Cold War. On another, it's a study of the role of individual covert agents--the "men on the spot"--who in some cases exerted outsized and at times decisive influence on the course of events. Finally, it's an engagement with the lasting impact of America's decisions in various parts of the world since the late 1940s.
The problem is that it's nearly impossible to do justice to each of these agendas in a large, but not massive, book. Especially when compared with Westad, it's striking that McCoy chooses case studies for in-depth looks while glossing over or ignoging events in his five continents that seem to be of at least equivalent significance. There's very little, for instance, on Brazil, India, or Ghana, all crucial Cold War battlegrounds. In addition, some of the chapters--on Greece and Laos among others--go into great depth while others compress huge stories into small sections that omit parts of the story that will be well known to those who have delved into them.
So it's a bit tricky to figure out who the book speaks to most effectively. Westad clearly remains the starting point on the Global Cold War and most of the case studies have received fuller treatment in reasonably accessible histories. When McCoy details the machinations of the covert agents, he's at his best, but often they're name-checked to stand in for their government's activities without a sense of why their individual efforts mattered.
The problem is that it's nearly impossible to do justice to each of these agendas in a large, but not massive, book. Especially when compared with Westad, it's striking that McCoy chooses case studies for in-depth looks while glossing over or ignoging events in his five continents that seem to be of at least equivalent significance. There's very little, for instance, on Brazil, India, or Ghana, all crucial Cold War battlegrounds. In addition, some of the chapters--on Greece and Laos among others--go into great depth while others compress huge stories into small sections that omit parts of the story that will be well known to those who have delved into them.
So it's a bit tricky to figure out who the book speaks to most effectively. Westad clearly remains the starting point on the Global Cold War and most of the case studies have received fuller treatment in reasonably accessible histories. When McCoy details the machinations of the covert agents, he's at his best, but often they're name-checked to stand in for their government's activities without a sense of why their individual efforts mattered.
May 6, 2026
Cold War on Five Continents, Alfred W. McCoy (1945-), 2025, 590 pages, Dewey 909.82, ISBN 9798888905029. Alfred McCoy books: https://search.library.wisc.edu/searc...
McCoy has the facts. He draws wrong conclusions.
To this author, anticommunism was the /reason/ the U.S. waged covert and overt war on the world from WWII on. No, anticommunism was the /excuse/ for covert and military help to the U.S. financial elite's extraction of wealth from the world (including from the U.S.). The fall of the USSR ended nothing. We have a war on (U.S.-incited) terror, a war on (U.S.-demanded) drugs, a claim that if China exceeds U.S. GDP, we'll all die. It needn't make sense.
Successfully failing to assign the bulk of the blame where it belongs, Professor McCoy gains university administrators' acceptance of his book as a college history textbook.
McCoy's take is, "faults on both sides." He defines the USSR as a superpower from 1947 to 1991. To the contrary, the USSR was a shambles after WWII. p. 23 and see Svetlana Alexievich, /The Unwomanly Face of War/, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Also Melvyn Leffler, /Safeguarding Democratic Capitalism/, 2017: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . U.S. officials' claim that Soviet military power threatened the U.S. /was a lie/. It was only Soviet /political/ power that was a threat. And it threatened only to impede the U.S. financial and corporate elite's extraction of wealth from the world. The U.S. would not and does not tolerate the threat of a good example--any country acting for the good of its people, rather than for investors' extraction of wealth. U.S. policymakers destroyed millions of lives and $12.4 trillion 1950-1990 pp. 27-28, and reduced politics everywhere to dominance-and-submission, to keep wealth flowing from poor to rich. (McCoy expresses this as, "CIA covert actions to counter Soviet influence." p. 5.) Nor is it over. Anticommunism was the excuse of the 1945-to-1991 period to strengthen corporate control. USSR and China are still demonized; excuses will be offered as they occur to those in charge.
McCoy characterizes the "proxy wars" in Vietnam, Guatemala, Afghanistan and elsewhere as decisions jointly made by the U.S. and USSR. p. 238. He even goes so far as to call CIA-targeted nations in Central America, Central Asia, and southern Africa "Soviet surrogates." pp. 261, 269, 315, 318, 325-326, 337, 373. That claim is inexcusable. No, the USSR didn't pick a fight in Vietnam; had nothing to do with Guatemala's land reform or Brazil's corporate taxation or Congo's or Chile's minerals policies; sought no quarrel with the U.S. in Afghanistan. It was the U.S. that chose mass murder, to impose rule by wealth (wrongly called democracy).
To this author, "momentary ruptures in the world system" allowed covert operatives "the autonomy for consequential covert action." p. 3. To the contrary, covert military, paramilitary, and espionage operations are /central/ to the world system the U.S. financial elite presides over. See, e.g., https://www.goodreads.com/review/list... Nor did it start with WWII. The U.S. has been imposing regime change abroad, in the service of business owners, since the Thomas Jefferson administration.
McCoy says that
* U.S.-USSR superpower rivalry,
* geopolitics leading to various crises,
* covert operations by U.S. and USSR, and
* decolonization (opening new areas to superpower rivalry)
provided the conditions for covert operators to do as they would. p. 3.
McCoy divides the Cold War into: p. 5
* 1946-1962 Europe [also Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Guatemala, Iran, Egypt, Palestine, Congo, Brazil, Philippines, Malaya, Indonesia, Cuba]
* 1962-1975 Southeast Asia [and Cuba, Indonesia, Congo, Chile, Guatemala]
* 1975-1991 Central America, Central Asia, southern Africa
EISENHOWER
Eisenhower authorized 170 major CIA covert operations in 48 nations, 1953-1961. pp. 9, 163.
COVERT OPERATIVES
McCoy lauds Western covert operatives. Kermit Roosevelt Jr. "conducted a daring coup that secured Iran's oil industry for the West." Edward Lansdale "preempted a communist takeover by installing a pro-American leader in Saigon." CIA station chief Larry Devlin "formed a pliable if kleptocratic regime out of the chaos in postcolonial Congo." British psywar expert Norman Reddaway "facilitated the Indonesian military's slaughter of a million suspected subversives." McCoy admires these men's success--ignoring the horrific consequences. p. 13.
USA vs. USSR
McCoy tells us that the cold war was "Christianity v. communism, democracy v. dictatorship, freedom v. totalitarianism." p. 21. He's wrong. Anticommunism was an /excuse/ to grab control of the world's resources for the benefit of the U.S. financial elite. The U.S. engaged in "anticommunist" wars killing 20 million people worldwide, 1945-1990 pp. 4, 438, not to provide them Christianity, democracy, and freedom. Indeed we installed brutal dictators. pp. 31, 390, 67 Greece, 138 Indonesia. All for greed.
McCoy defines the cold war as "a world war over ideas." p. 35. No, it was and is over resources. "Cold war," "war on terror," whatever.
To McCoy, the West comprises "free-market democracies." p. 413. He misses the fact that what he calls "free-market" means rule by wealth. The opposite of democracy. p. 417.
McCoy says that Váckav Havel helped change NATO from an anti-Soviet alliance to a European security organization. p. 401. No, NATO is still an anti-Russia alliance. NATO's continued antagonization of Russia makes Europe less secure. pp. 414, 416-419, 428-429. See Medea Benjamin:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
McCoy downplays the damage the Clinton administration did in bombing Serbia. p. 404.
PALESTINE
McCoy strangely claims that the 1993 Oslo Accords were "a first step toward a two-state solution." p. 427-428. For the truth, see, e.g., Rashid Khalidi, /The Hundred Years' War on Palestine/: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Oslo was a capitulation by the PLO. It conferred legitimacy on Israel and gave the Palestinians nothing. Nor was U.S. diplomacy "ineffectual," as McCoy believes pp. 428, 432. The U.S. succeeded in preventing Palestinians from getting any rights. As U.S. politicians' wealthy Zionist paymasters did and do prefer.
NUKES
"If we don't want to be bullied, we have to have the atomic bomb." --Mao Zedong. p. 103.
IRAN
The CIA deposed Iran's elected government and installed the repressive Shah, so that U.S. companies could have 40% of Iran's oil. pp. 155, 164.
VIETNAM
McCoy says the Vietnam War "started" in 1965. p. 101. No, the U.S. was providing over 75% of the funds for France's colonial war there by 1951. p. 239. U.S. infantry offensives began in 1965. p. 244.
By the time U.S. soldiers started leaving Vietnam in 1971, 34% were habitual heroin users. p. 252.
INDONESIA
McCoy states as fact that the 1 million Indonesian victims of U.S.-supported state murder were communists. p. 271. The fact is, the Indonesian military cast a wide net, knowing that if you kill enough people, you'll kill some of the ones you wanted to. See /The Jakarta Method/, Vincent Bevins, 2020, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . McCoy celebrates the Indonesian massacre as the West's greatest victory of the Cold War. p. 272. Yet even this was not, as McCoy says, the greatest mass murder of the Cold War era. p. 271. That was in (mainland) Southeast Asia. Followed by Congo. p. 339.
WHO WON?
McCoy says that the U.S. "won the Cold War" pp. 340, 414, but "lost Africa." p. 340.
A look at the USSR breakup from the Soviet side: /Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000/, Stephen Kotkin: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
IT'S OVER?
McCoy wants us to believe that the congressional investigations into the Iran-Contra scandal ended the golden age of espionage created by the cold war. pp. 371, 431. To believe that, we'd have to ignore the ongoing carnage around the world, documented by, among others, Chris Hedges in /War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning/: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . To believe that, we'd have to ignore the secrets and lies that brought us into George W. Bush's wars in Afghanistan p. 425 and Iraq pp. 425-428, so-called war on terror, Obama's drone assassinations, the Obama-Trump war on Libya, the Obama-Trump-Biden war on Syria, the Obama-Trump-Biden war on Yemen, Trump's Iran war and attack on Venezuela, Clinton's attacks on the Balkans and Somalia. We'd have to ignore the continuing U.S. economic and military terrorism around the world, and U.S. continuing support of repressive autocratic regimes, including genocidal Israel. See, e.g., Noam Chomsky's /Taming the Rascal Multitude/ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
and /What Uncle Sam Really Wants/: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
U.S. economic terrorism: /The Poorer Nations/, Vijay Prashad: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and Michael Hudson, /Super Imperialism/: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and /Making the Future/, Noam Chomsky: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Moreover, we'd have to ignore U.S. leaders of both parties goading us toward war with China, Russia, the Islamic world, Latin America, anyone. The U.S. continues to create enemies to war on. The CIA is still busy. U.S. Russia-baiting under both parties led to war in Ukraine p. 428: Medea Benjamin
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Nathan J. Robinson calls out Rahm Emanuel making an enemy of China: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/p... . U.S. imperialism in the Indo-Pacific, Monthly Review, July-Aug. 2024: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
DISSIDENTS
McCoy tells us that the Vietnam-era protesters who tried to reshape society were born 1946-1964 (distinct from the CIA spooks, mostly born 1908-1927). p. 263. Let's add:
Sidney Lens, 1912-1986 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
David Dellinger, 1915-2004 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Daniel Berrigan, 1921-2016 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Howard Zinn, 1922-2010 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Mitchell Goodman, 1923-1997 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Denise Levertov, 1923-1997 https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Philip Berrigan, 1923-2002 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
William Sloane Coffin, 1924-2006 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Malcolm X, 1925-1965 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list... , and see James H. Cone, /Martin and Malcolm: A Dream or A Nightmare?/: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Noam Chomsky, 1928- https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Daniel Ellsberg, 1931-2023 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
William Blum, 1933-2018 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
James W. Douglass, 1937- https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Tom Hayden, 1939-2016 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
John Pilger, 1939-2023 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Elizabeth McAlister, 1939-
Fred Branfman, 1942-2014 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Gareth Porter, 1942- https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Bernardine Dohrn, 1942- https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Paul Buhle, 1944- https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
READ ALSO books by
Joel Andreas https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Mehrsa Baradaran https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Vincent Bevins https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Paul Thomas Chamberlin https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Andrew Cockburn https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Greg Grandin https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
David Harvey https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Chris Hedges https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Michael Hudson https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Stephen Kinzer https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Walter LaFeber https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Beatriz Manz https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jeremy Scahill https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
David Talbot https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Nick Turse https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Tim Weiner https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
TAIWAN
It"s worth knowing how China sees Taiwan: https://www.qiaocollective.com/educat... . (Be aware, there are no Chinese self-criticisms here: criticisms only of Taiwan, the U.S., and Japan.)
EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRIES
McCoy calls copper extraction and oil extraction, "production."
McCoy has the facts. He draws wrong conclusions.
To this author, anticommunism was the /reason/ the U.S. waged covert and overt war on the world from WWII on. No, anticommunism was the /excuse/ for covert and military help to the U.S. financial elite's extraction of wealth from the world (including from the U.S.). The fall of the USSR ended nothing. We have a war on (U.S.-incited) terror, a war on (U.S.-demanded) drugs, a claim that if China exceeds U.S. GDP, we'll all die. It needn't make sense.
Successfully failing to assign the bulk of the blame where it belongs, Professor McCoy gains university administrators' acceptance of his book as a college history textbook.
McCoy's take is, "faults on both sides." He defines the USSR as a superpower from 1947 to 1991. To the contrary, the USSR was a shambles after WWII. p. 23 and see Svetlana Alexievich, /The Unwomanly Face of War/, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Also Melvyn Leffler, /Safeguarding Democratic Capitalism/, 2017: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . U.S. officials' claim that Soviet military power threatened the U.S. /was a lie/. It was only Soviet /political/ power that was a threat. And it threatened only to impede the U.S. financial and corporate elite's extraction of wealth from the world. The U.S. would not and does not tolerate the threat of a good example--any country acting for the good of its people, rather than for investors' extraction of wealth. U.S. policymakers destroyed millions of lives and $12.4 trillion 1950-1990 pp. 27-28, and reduced politics everywhere to dominance-and-submission, to keep wealth flowing from poor to rich. (McCoy expresses this as, "CIA covert actions to counter Soviet influence." p. 5.) Nor is it over. Anticommunism was the excuse of the 1945-to-1991 period to strengthen corporate control. USSR and China are still demonized; excuses will be offered as they occur to those in charge.
McCoy characterizes the "proxy wars" in Vietnam, Guatemala, Afghanistan and elsewhere as decisions jointly made by the U.S. and USSR. p. 238. He even goes so far as to call CIA-targeted nations in Central America, Central Asia, and southern Africa "Soviet surrogates." pp. 261, 269, 315, 318, 325-326, 337, 373. That claim is inexcusable. No, the USSR didn't pick a fight in Vietnam; had nothing to do with Guatemala's land reform or Brazil's corporate taxation or Congo's or Chile's minerals policies; sought no quarrel with the U.S. in Afghanistan. It was the U.S. that chose mass murder, to impose rule by wealth (wrongly called democracy).
To this author, "momentary ruptures in the world system" allowed covert operatives "the autonomy for consequential covert action." p. 3. To the contrary, covert military, paramilitary, and espionage operations are /central/ to the world system the U.S. financial elite presides over. See, e.g., https://www.goodreads.com/review/list... Nor did it start with WWII. The U.S. has been imposing regime change abroad, in the service of business owners, since the Thomas Jefferson administration.
McCoy says that
* U.S.-USSR superpower rivalry,
* geopolitics leading to various crises,
* covert operations by U.S. and USSR, and
* decolonization (opening new areas to superpower rivalry)
provided the conditions for covert operators to do as they would. p. 3.
McCoy divides the Cold War into: p. 5
* 1946-1962 Europe [also Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Guatemala, Iran, Egypt, Palestine, Congo, Brazil, Philippines, Malaya, Indonesia, Cuba]
* 1962-1975 Southeast Asia [and Cuba, Indonesia, Congo, Chile, Guatemala]
* 1975-1991 Central America, Central Asia, southern Africa
EISENHOWER
Eisenhower authorized 170 major CIA covert operations in 48 nations, 1953-1961. pp. 9, 163.
COVERT OPERATIVES
McCoy lauds Western covert operatives. Kermit Roosevelt Jr. "conducted a daring coup that secured Iran's oil industry for the West." Edward Lansdale "preempted a communist takeover by installing a pro-American leader in Saigon." CIA station chief Larry Devlin "formed a pliable if kleptocratic regime out of the chaos in postcolonial Congo." British psywar expert Norman Reddaway "facilitated the Indonesian military's slaughter of a million suspected subversives." McCoy admires these men's success--ignoring the horrific consequences. p. 13.
USA vs. USSR
McCoy tells us that the cold war was "Christianity v. communism, democracy v. dictatorship, freedom v. totalitarianism." p. 21. He's wrong. Anticommunism was an /excuse/ to grab control of the world's resources for the benefit of the U.S. financial elite. The U.S. engaged in "anticommunist" wars killing 20 million people worldwide, 1945-1990 pp. 4, 438, not to provide them Christianity, democracy, and freedom. Indeed we installed brutal dictators. pp. 31, 390, 67 Greece, 138 Indonesia. All for greed.
McCoy defines the cold war as "a world war over ideas." p. 35. No, it was and is over resources. "Cold war," "war on terror," whatever.
To McCoy, the West comprises "free-market democracies." p. 413. He misses the fact that what he calls "free-market" means rule by wealth. The opposite of democracy. p. 417.
McCoy says that Váckav Havel helped change NATO from an anti-Soviet alliance to a European security organization. p. 401. No, NATO is still an anti-Russia alliance. NATO's continued antagonization of Russia makes Europe less secure. pp. 414, 416-419, 428-429. See Medea Benjamin:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
McCoy downplays the damage the Clinton administration did in bombing Serbia. p. 404.
PALESTINE
McCoy strangely claims that the 1993 Oslo Accords were "a first step toward a two-state solution." p. 427-428. For the truth, see, e.g., Rashid Khalidi, /The Hundred Years' War on Palestine/: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Oslo was a capitulation by the PLO. It conferred legitimacy on Israel and gave the Palestinians nothing. Nor was U.S. diplomacy "ineffectual," as McCoy believes pp. 428, 432. The U.S. succeeded in preventing Palestinians from getting any rights. As U.S. politicians' wealthy Zionist paymasters did and do prefer.
NUKES
"If we don't want to be bullied, we have to have the atomic bomb." --Mao Zedong. p. 103.
IRAN
The CIA deposed Iran's elected government and installed the repressive Shah, so that U.S. companies could have 40% of Iran's oil. pp. 155, 164.
VIETNAM
McCoy says the Vietnam War "started" in 1965. p. 101. No, the U.S. was providing over 75% of the funds for France's colonial war there by 1951. p. 239. U.S. infantry offensives began in 1965. p. 244.
By the time U.S. soldiers started leaving Vietnam in 1971, 34% were habitual heroin users. p. 252.
INDONESIA
McCoy states as fact that the 1 million Indonesian victims of U.S.-supported state murder were communists. p. 271. The fact is, the Indonesian military cast a wide net, knowing that if you kill enough people, you'll kill some of the ones you wanted to. See /The Jakarta Method/, Vincent Bevins, 2020, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . McCoy celebrates the Indonesian massacre as the West's greatest victory of the Cold War. p. 272. Yet even this was not, as McCoy says, the greatest mass murder of the Cold War era. p. 271. That was in (mainland) Southeast Asia. Followed by Congo. p. 339.
WHO WON?
McCoy says that the U.S. "won the Cold War" pp. 340, 414, but "lost Africa." p. 340.
A look at the USSR breakup from the Soviet side: /Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000/, Stephen Kotkin: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
IT'S OVER?
McCoy wants us to believe that the congressional investigations into the Iran-Contra scandal ended the golden age of espionage created by the cold war. pp. 371, 431. To believe that, we'd have to ignore the ongoing carnage around the world, documented by, among others, Chris Hedges in /War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning/: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . To believe that, we'd have to ignore the secrets and lies that brought us into George W. Bush's wars in Afghanistan p. 425 and Iraq pp. 425-428, so-called war on terror, Obama's drone assassinations, the Obama-Trump war on Libya, the Obama-Trump-Biden war on Syria, the Obama-Trump-Biden war on Yemen, Trump's Iran war and attack on Venezuela, Clinton's attacks on the Balkans and Somalia. We'd have to ignore the continuing U.S. economic and military terrorism around the world, and U.S. continuing support of repressive autocratic regimes, including genocidal Israel. See, e.g., Noam Chomsky's /Taming the Rascal Multitude/ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
and /What Uncle Sam Really Wants/: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
U.S. economic terrorism: /The Poorer Nations/, Vijay Prashad: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and Michael Hudson, /Super Imperialism/: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and /Making the Future/, Noam Chomsky: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Moreover, we'd have to ignore U.S. leaders of both parties goading us toward war with China, Russia, the Islamic world, Latin America, anyone. The U.S. continues to create enemies to war on. The CIA is still busy. U.S. Russia-baiting under both parties led to war in Ukraine p. 428: Medea Benjamin
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Nathan J. Robinson calls out Rahm Emanuel making an enemy of China: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/p... . U.S. imperialism in the Indo-Pacific, Monthly Review, July-Aug. 2024: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
DISSIDENTS
McCoy tells us that the Vietnam-era protesters who tried to reshape society were born 1946-1964 (distinct from the CIA spooks, mostly born 1908-1927). p. 263. Let's add:
Sidney Lens, 1912-1986 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
David Dellinger, 1915-2004 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Daniel Berrigan, 1921-2016 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Howard Zinn, 1922-2010 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Mitchell Goodman, 1923-1997 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Denise Levertov, 1923-1997 https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Philip Berrigan, 1923-2002 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
William Sloane Coffin, 1924-2006 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Malcolm X, 1925-1965 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list... , and see James H. Cone, /Martin and Malcolm: A Dream or A Nightmare?/: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Noam Chomsky, 1928- https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Daniel Ellsberg, 1931-2023 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
William Blum, 1933-2018 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
James W. Douglass, 1937- https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Tom Hayden, 1939-2016 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
John Pilger, 1939-2023 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Elizabeth McAlister, 1939-
Fred Branfman, 1942-2014 https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Gareth Porter, 1942- https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Bernardine Dohrn, 1942- https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Paul Buhle, 1944- https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
READ ALSO books by
Joel Andreas https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Mehrsa Baradaran https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Vincent Bevins https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Paul Thomas Chamberlin https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Andrew Cockburn https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Greg Grandin https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
David Harvey https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Chris Hedges https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Michael Hudson https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Stephen Kinzer https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Walter LaFeber https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Beatriz Manz https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jeremy Scahill https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
David Talbot https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Nick Turse https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
Tim Weiner https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...
TAIWAN
It"s worth knowing how China sees Taiwan: https://www.qiaocollective.com/educat... . (Be aware, there are no Chinese self-criticisms here: criticisms only of Taiwan, the U.S., and Japan.)
EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRIES
McCoy calls copper extraction and oil extraction, "production."
February 27, 2026
This book by Alfred McCoy is brilliant, incisive, and offers a clear panorama of how America – through the CIA and the army – fought the Cold War across five continents. While the book often mentions moves the Russians made, Al McCoy’s clear focus is on America.
The book’s defining feature is the sustained focus on espionage, intelligence agencies, psychological warfare, and the ‘man on the spot.’ I do not know how many of these conflicts could have been sustained without these daring, ruthless people on the spot, often running almost loose.
Alfred McCoy also discusses the sustained damage inflicted on the regions used as arenas for the Cold War.
The book is not for casual readers and is heavy on detail, making it difficult to read. If you intend to study geopolitics, the Cold War, or post-colonial conflict, then buy the hard copy of the book, as you will be able to use it as a reference.
The book reinterprets the Cold War, is a critique of empire and covert power, is a synthesis of intelligence and social history, and warns against repeating geopolitical mistakes. Anyone following recent events will realize we will keep repeating these errors.
There is another critical element in the book that sets it apart from other Cold War histories, which portray America as a moral and defensive player. Alfred McCoy portrays America’s role as active, interventionist, without hesitating to decapitate governments or destroy economies.
The book is brilliant
The book’s defining feature is the sustained focus on espionage, intelligence agencies, psychological warfare, and the ‘man on the spot.’ I do not know how many of these conflicts could have been sustained without these daring, ruthless people on the spot, often running almost loose.
Alfred McCoy also discusses the sustained damage inflicted on the regions used as arenas for the Cold War.
The book is not for casual readers and is heavy on detail, making it difficult to read. If you intend to study geopolitics, the Cold War, or post-colonial conflict, then buy the hard copy of the book, as you will be able to use it as a reference.
The book reinterprets the Cold War, is a critique of empire and covert power, is a synthesis of intelligence and social history, and warns against repeating geopolitical mistakes. Anyone following recent events will realize we will keep repeating these errors.
There is another critical element in the book that sets it apart from other Cold War histories, which portray America as a moral and defensive player. Alfred McCoy portrays America’s role as active, interventionist, without hesitating to decapitate governments or destroy economies.
The book is brilliant
March 6, 2026
Brilliant until last two chapters
A riveting well researched deep dive into the cold war up through the 1980s. The later chapters following the collapse of the Soviet Union seem to have been hurriedly written and only superficially cover events, particularly so as relates to Russia.
A riveting well researched deep dive into the cold war up through the 1980s. The later chapters following the collapse of the Soviet Union seem to have been hurriedly written and only superficially cover events, particularly so as relates to Russia.
Read
April 30, 2026This is a detailed and ambitious look at the Cold War beyond the usual focus areas. It covers a lot of ground and offers interesting perspectives on empire and intelligence. At the same time, it’s quite dense and requires patience. Some sections are more engaging than others.
February 2, 2026
Revealing, provocative, and a must-read for the shadow history of the US empire through the four decades of Cold War in five continents!
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