I went ahead and completely omitted the last part about the US and the USSR. I dont think it changes the meaning in any way. The only thing is that the end of the sentence that I omitted foreshadowed the discussion of Cold War in the next sentence. I do think, however, that it is safe to assume our readers know who fought the cold war without actually explaining it. If not, they can click on the cold war link and read it on a separate page. It is impossible to fit everything in like this. New suggestions, however, are still welcome.