can you paraphrase this for me please.
The cold war lasted for nearly fifty years following WW11. During this period tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union were extremely high as both competed for political, economic, and military influence. It was called the "cold war" because the two countries never actually engaged in military warfare. However, they did conduct numerous proxy (substitute) wars, such as the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Yom Kippur War and the Soviet Afghanistan War, where the U.S and the Soviet Union backed opposing sides.