# What happened to World War III? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 4, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341 "2003-04-04T00:55:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rexnervous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rexnervous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rexnervous)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/1 "2003-04-04T00:55:53Z")
I’ve been tuning out more often all the war stuff lately, but tune in to CNN (and I thought I saw a similar headline online) to see them talking about “World War Four”. WTF? Did I miss a world war? ---
**Author:** ![ChalkPit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@ChalkPit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChalkPit)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/2 "2003-04-04T00:58:39Z")
I think you would have noticed. ---
**Author:** ![Never\_to\_be\_Queen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Never\_to\_be\_Queen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Never_to_be_Queen)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/3 "2003-04-04T01:18:18Z")
James Woolsey, a former CIA Director said we are now in the Fourth World War. He said that the Cold War was WWIII. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/4 "2003-04-04T01:37:04Z")
Uh, I didn’t get the memo. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/5 "2003-04-04T02:51:34Z")
I think that’s his interpretation. I’ve heard others say things along similar lines, with the Napolonic wars being the Real WW1. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/6 "2003-04-04T03:05:02Z")
> [@](#): > > Former CIA Director James Woolsey said Wednesday the United States is engaged in World War IV, and that it could continue for years. > > In the address to a group of college students, Woolsey described the Cold War as the third world war and said “This fourth world war, I think, will last considerably longer than either World Wars I or II did for us. Hopefully not the full four-plus decades of the Cold War.” Source: [http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/03/sprj.irq.woolsey.world.war/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/03/sprj.irq.woolsey.world.war/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/7 "2003-04-04T06:02:20Z")
So, what defines a World War? Doesn’t it involve the whole world going to war? (What role did Asia and Africa play in WWI?) ---
**Author:** ![Verminous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@Verminous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Verminous)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/8 "2003-04-04T06:15:31Z")
Well, it’s been said that, in totality, the cold war lead to a few million deaths (cia operations, etc). So you might as well put it under the ‘sophisticated war’ label, i guess. ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/9 "2003-04-04T06:52:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > \*\*So, what defines a World War? Doesn’t it involve the whole world going to war? > > (What role did Asia and Africa play in WWI?) \*\* Well, Japan joined the allies, and grapped a couple on minor German possesions in the Pacific during WWI; also the European powers brought in troops from their African colonies. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/10 "2003-04-04T09:24:03Z")
Look, there is no WWIII or WWIV. The Cold War was “The Cold War”. It involved a bunch of proxy wars like Afghanistan and Nam as well as a lot of political incidents but you can hardly compare it to the carnage of WWI or WWII. the Napoleonic Wars were “The Napoleonic Wars” why not call the French and Indian wars WW0 since that involved the two superpowers of the day. Why not call the Persian Gulf War WWIII since it involved a coalition of 30 countries against Iraq? Since we are not fighting with sticks and rocks like Einstein predicted, we must not be fighting WWIV and thus WWIII didn’t happen. ---
**Author:** ![Deptford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Deptford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deptford)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/11 "2003-04-04T12:16:53Z")
\ Let’s not forget when people talk about the Napoleonic Wars they’re actually talking about multiple wars. The “Revoltionary wars” lasted from 1792 -1802 and were ended by the peace of Amiens. War broke out again in 1803 lasting to 1814. This conflict is the actual “Napoleonic war”. Then a year later Napolean escaped retook the French throne and launched the brief war known as “The 100 days”. Which gives us several world wars there and then. \ ---
**Author:** ![Deptford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Deptford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deptford)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/12 "2003-04-04T12:27:24Z")
Plus let’s not forget the _7 years war_ (1756-63). A coalition war fought on both Land and Sea at in the America’ s, Europe , India and the Caribean. ---
**Author:** ![Deptford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Deptford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deptford)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/13 "2003-04-04T12:32:27Z")
Oh, and _The War of the Spanish succesion_ is also sometimes claimed as the 1st true world war as well. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/14 "2003-04-04T12:33:16Z")
> [@](#): > > Why not call the Persian Gulf War WWIII since it involved a coalition of 30 countries against Iraq? Thing is, its not one war but a long series of them and less “total” action against fascism and terrorism in predominantly Muslim nations. Look, no on ever said naming was logical. ---
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/15 "2003-04-04T12:35:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by msmith537 \* > **Why not call the Persian Gulf War WWIII since it involved a coalition of 30 countries against Iraq?** Or the Korean War (Korean conflict?), for that matter, which then-UN Secretary Dag Hammarskjold called “war against the United Nations.” ---
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/16 "2003-04-04T12:36:55Z")
Sorry, Secretary _General_. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-world-war-iii/166341/17 "2003-04-04T14:07:49Z")
Hmmm… OK, World Wars are defined AFTER they start, by journalists, historians and the weight of public opinion. Since nobody called the Cold War WW3 while it was under way or in the first 10 years after it was over, I think the man from the CIA is being grandiose. Maybe he would have been closer to the mark (but still not totally straight on) if he thought of the current state of the world as _Cold War II_; a series of “proxy wars and political incidents” with ocassional _localized_ “hot” wars involving _some_ “Great Powers”, essentially over the hegemony or survival of an ideology or way-of-life (e.g. Western liberal global capitalism). As msmith357 mentions, refer to Cold War – much espionage, brinkmanship, political posturing, tedious treatises; bloody coups/countercoups/revolts (Guatemala, Hungary, Chile, Czechoslovakia); proxy wars (Nicaragua, Angola), terrorist campaigns (Brigatti Rossi) and a few _limited_ Great-Power wars (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan 79-89). But it seems still early to really “call” it; and Cold Wars I and II would overlap in some places – for instance, the Afghan Mujahddin. Thing is, CW1 had a defined adversary – Soviet-led _expansion_ of leninist communism – and two strategic counterobjectives: an immediate of containment and limited rollback, and a long-term one of bringing the Soviet bloc “back” into the “western” fold. CW2 is still fuzzy to pin down. IMO (and YMMV) the “World” wars, though it’s true that they were not the first wars in which virtually all Western Great Powers formed multigonal alliances that took the warfighting to more than one theatre around the world, were defined in that they happened with the technology (transoceanic telegraphy, motor transportation; later radio and aviation) to keep the governments and public opinion abreast of anything significant within at most one or two days, so it could be all seen as “one” war, as opposed to, say, three wars going on simultaneously among parallel groups of allies, about the outcome of which we find out months later; involved both European and non-European nations; AND had several of the _Great Powers directly at active, shooting war with each other in multiple theatres in a way that involved a coordination of strategies_ among allies on each side, including strategically managed “neutralities” – which is why we don’t count WW2 from the Italian and Japanese invasions of Ethiopia and China, but we do count the 1940-41 period when it was the British Empire and a few “governments in exile” vs. the European Axis with the US and USSR ostensibly “neutral”.