In Europe, the dividing line between East and West remained
essentially frozen during the next decades. But conflict spread to Asia,
Africa, and Latin America. The struggle to overthrow colonial regimes
frequently became entangled in Cold War tensions, and the superpowers
competed to influence anti-colonial movements.
In 1949, the communists triumphed in the Chinese civil war, and the
world's most populous nation joined the Soviet Union as a Cold War
adversary. In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, and the United
Nations and the United States sent troops and military aid. Communist
China intervened to support North Korea, and bloody campaigns stretched
on for three years until a truce was signed in 1953.
