the Cold War is a conflict between the Communist nations led by the Soviet Union and the democratic nations led by the United States. The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc the Soviet Union and its satellite states and powers in the Western Block the United States its nato allies and others. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947 the year the Truman Doctrine a US foreign policy pledging to aid nations threatened by Soviet expansionism was announced and 1991 the year the Soviet Union fell.
The Cold War led to conflict because the world's two chief powers did not trust each other and were committed to opposing the other side's way of life. Some of the deeper issues that set the USA and the USSR at odds were that the USA was committed to capitalism and democratic institutions of government, whereas the USSR was committed to communism and imposed authoritarian government. The Cold War was mostly a tension between these worldviews.There were also immediate conflicts and pressure points as the Cold War began. One of those issues was that the USA had atomic weapons and the USSR did not. (The US would not share that technology with the Soviets, who had been their ally in World War II.) When the Soviets developed their own atomic weaponry, this led to a massive arms race between the superpowers.
During the course of the Cold War, the two superpowers never directly went to war with one another. However, they did support a number of proxy wars where they were supporting opposing sides in other conflicts -- such as the Korean War, the Six Day War (in the Middle East), the Soviet-Afghan War, etc.
A basin landform consists of an area of land, usually like a smaller prairie, enclosed by higher land such as hills and mountains. A basin does not have to consist of lowland like a prairie. It can consist of land such as a desert or even an arctic desert.
