 In the lead up to World War II, we understood the primary threat to come from a tyrant in Europe, but we were attacked by a tyrant in Asia, and we were forced into war in two theaters. In the Cold War, of course, the Soviets were the only real threat to the U.S., but they had a block of proxies around the world, and they worked together. The Tripartite Pact established an axis of powers set on undoing the West, and the Warsaw Pact established