Vietnam War (1955-1975)

- Main Features: Guerrilla warfare, significant U.S. involvement, heavy bombing

campaigns (Operation Rolling Thunder), Tet Offensive.
- Main Characters: Ho Chi Minh (North Vietnam), Ngo Dinh Diem (South Vietnam),
Lyndon B. Johnson (U.S. President), Richard Nixon (U.S. President), General Vo
Nguyen Giap (North Vietnamese commander).
- Countries Involved: North Vietnam, South Vietnam, United States, Soviet Union,
China, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, Philippines.
- Specific Years: 1955 (start), 1964 (Gulf of Tonkin Incident), 1968 (Tet Offensive),
1973 (Paris Peace Accords), 1975 (Fall of Saigon).
- Causes: Spread of communism in Southeast Asia, North Vietnam's desire to unify the
country under communism, U.S. policy of containment.
- Outcomes: North Vietnamese victory, reunification of Vietnam under communist rule,
significant casualties and destruction, long-term impacts on U.S. foreign policy and
society.

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World War I (1914-1918)

- Main Features: Trench warfare, introduction of tanks and chemical weapons,
significant civilian and military casualties, global involvement.
- Main Characters: Kaiser Wilhelm II (Germany), Woodrow Wilson (U.S. President),
David Lloyd George (UK Prime Minister), Georges Clemenceau (French Prime
Minister), Tsar Nicholas II (Russia).
- Countries Involved: Allied Powers (France, UK, Russia, Italy, U.S. later), Central
Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria).
- Specific Years: 1914 (assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand), 1917 (U.S. enters
the war, Russian Revolution), 1918 (Armistice).
- Causes: Militarism, alliances, imperialism, nationalism, assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand.
- Outcomes: Treaty of Versailles, redrawing of European borders, League of Nations
formation, significant political changes and upheavals, economic consequences leading
to the Great Depression.

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World War II (1939-1945)

- Main Features: Global conflict, genocide (Holocaust), use of atomic bombs, massive
military and civilian casualties, significant technological advancements.
- Main Characters: Adolf Hitler (Germany), Winston Churchill (UK Prime Minister),
Franklin D. Roosevelt (U.S. President), Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union), Emperor Hirohito
(Japan).
- Countries Involved: Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, Japan), Allied Powers (UK, Soviet
Union, U.S., China, France, and others).
- Specific Years: 1939 (invasion of Poland), 1941 (Pearl Harbor, U.S. enters the war),
1944 (D-Day), 1945 (VE Day, VJ Day, atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
- Causes: Treaty of Versailles aftermath, rise of fascism, expansionist policies of Axis
Powers, failure of appeasement.
- Outcomes: Allied victory, United Nations formation, Cold War onset, decolonization,
massive geopolitical shifts, economic reconstruction (Marshall Plan).

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Korean War (1950-1953)

- Main Features: Cold War conflict, significant U.N. involvement, large-scale ground
battles, Korean Peninsula division.
- Main Characters: Kim Il-Sung (North Korea), Syngman Rhee (South Korea), Harry S.
Truman (U.S. President), Douglas MacArthur (U.S. General), Mao Zedong (China).
- Countries Involved: North Korea, South Korea, United States, China, Soviet Union,
United Nations forces.
- Specific Years: 1950 (North Korean invasion of South Korea), 1953 (armistice
signed).
- Causes: Division of Korea post-WWII, North Korea's aim to unify Korea under
communism, U.S. policy of containment.
- Outcomes: Armistice agreement, continued division of Korea along the 38th parallel,
heavy casualties, ongoing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

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Cold War (1947-1991)

- Main Features: Ideological conflict, nuclear arms race, proxy wars, espionage, space
race.

- Main Characters: Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union), Harry S. Truman (U.S. President),
John F. Kennedy (U.S. President), Ronald Reagan (U.S. President), Mikhail Gorbachev
(Soviet Union).
- Countries Involved: United States, Soviet Union, NATO allies, Warsaw Pact
countries, various countries involved in proxy wars (e.g., Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan).
- Specific Years: 1947 (Truman Doctrine), 1962 (Cuban Missile Crisis), 1989 (Fall of
Berlin Wall), 1991 (dissolution of the Soviet Union).
- Causes: Post-WWII power vacuum, ideological clash between capitalism and
communism, competition for global influence.
- Outcomes: Collapse of the Soviet Union, end of bipolar world order, spread of
democracy and market economies, continued regional conflicts influenced by Cold War
dynamics.