The Cold War had not only involved Russia and the United States of America. It had spread to other nations in both Europe and Asia.

The initial center of the Cold War was Germany. After World War II, the United States, Great Britain and Russia met to decide the fate of Germany at the Yalta Conference. It was decided that Germany would be split in half- the west was the Allies side, divided between the United States, Great Britain and France, while the east was the Soviet side, controlled by the USSR. Germany's capital Berlin was also divided into four territories. West Berlin was the Allies side, and East Berlin belonged to the USSR.

Russia had taken control of Eastern Europe in its pursuit to defeat Germany at the end of World War II. At the Potsdam Conference, the United States, Great Britain and Russia debated over the outcome of the territories that were freed from German control. The United States wanted these countries to have free elections, whereas the Soviet Union wanted its neighboring countries, especially Poland, to have governments that would be loyal to the Soviet Union. These countries did not have the free elections President Truman wanted, and ended being under Soviet control. The only exception to this was Yugoslavia, although it shared the same communist ideology.

With the proposal of the Marshall Plan, the United States had involved Western Europe in the Cold War. The primary purpose of this plan was to contain Russian communism by providing economic aid to European countries affected by World War II. Every European country accepted the aid from the United States except for the Soviet Union and its satellites, which saw the plan as a way to extend the American influence in Europe. Still, the plan had ensured that the governments in Western Europe were stable from Soviet control. It also sparked a contrast between the rapidly recovering Western Europe's economies with the depressed economies in Eastern Europe.

Also, both the United States and Russia had started their own military alliances. The United States started the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which was an alliance among the western nations. Meanwhile the Soviet Union had started their own military alliance among itself and its satellites called the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), which stemmed from the Warsaw Pact.

The Cold War had also developed in Asia. In 1949, the Chinese Civil War between the communists and nationalist Chinese ended with a communist victory. This united the nation under a communist rule, and caused China to become one of America's enemies. They had intervened in the Chinese Civil War by sending a U.S. fleet to protect the Chinese Nationalists that fled to Taiwan.

At the end of World War II, Korea had been separated at the 38th parallel, with the Soviet forces in the North and the United States forces in the South. The desire of both nations to unite Korea under one government had caused the outbreak of war in June 1950. At first, Russia drove the United States forces further south away from the 38th parallel, because the United States had not concentrated on putting military forces in Korea; however, the United States was able to move the fighting north toward the Yalu River border, but this provoked Chinese involvement. The Chinese sent forces to help the Koreans, which ended the Korean War at the 38th parallel.

The United States also wanted to prevent Vietnam from becoming a nation-state. They sent forces to help the South Vietnamese from communist rule. Eventually, there was a plan to switch out American forces with Vietnamese forces, but this plan never went into action. Rather, the United States removed their forces from Vietnam in return for American prisoners. This truce with North Vietnam was disguised surrender that ended the war with Vietnam under communist control.

Another event in the Cold War was the Cuban Missile Crisis. Khruschev, the Soviet leader, had placed missiles in Cuba. When President Kennedy learned about the missiles, a hotline started between Kennedy and Khruschev. First Khrushchev agreed to removing the missiles in Cuba in return for the United States' promise to not invade Cuba. Then, before Kennedy replied to the first offer, Khrushchev sent a second asking for the missiles in Turkey to be removed. Kennedy ignored the second, and only agreed to the first offer, which Khrushchev accepted, with the missiles in Turkey being removed covertly some time later. After 13 days of negociating, the missiles in Cuba were removed.