Hi John, thank you for your question. The most important thing to remember about the Cold War is that it was only considered 'cold' from the American perspective. There were a number of small wars in Africa and Asia that were part of the Cold War - the most recent being the Afghanistan war.
Some of the most horrific human rights abuses have come out of these small wars during the Cold War era such as that in Sierra Leone. Additionally, we have only just exited the last war of the Cold War era in 2021 with the Afghanistan war, so in many ways the world is still reeling from the aftershock of that 20 year war. If you are interested in further reading, I strongly recommend Dr. Jeremy Prestholdt's book titled Domesticating the World: African Consumerism and the Genealogies of Globalization.
