When Did World War Two End And The Cold War Begin? World War Two (WW2) was always a conflation of two wars, with three of the protagonists – United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Russia – playing significant roles in both wars. World War Two – or at least the war between The West and The Axis – was already over except for the paperwork. Are we now in a new hot Cold War in which only one side is fighting through a proxy? Anyone who flirts with the idea of world war needs to be aware of such tragedies.