The four minute warning. The balance of power. Mutually Assured Destruction. A massive number of movies. The Cold War's impact on the world was huge. This is the story in reasonably short form. There are three approaches among politicial scientists regarding the Cold War, which can be summed pretty simply (they also somewhat overlap with views on the Soviet Union): * Traditionalist - America good, USSR bad. * Revisionist - Both bad, America worse. * Post-revisionist - Both somewhat bad, USSR far worse. 'Change Places!' -- Behind the Scenes Politics It was a great big lie.