The 'Cold War', a term coined by George Orwell in 1945 but popularized by journalist Walter Lippmann in 1947, lasted 46 years. It began when the allies divided Germany into zones of occupation and ended in 1991 when the USSR split into the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). During the Cold War, the USA and NATO, and the USSR and the Warsaw Pact stood braced for armed conflict with each other, with ideological conflicts, mutual fear and mistrust fuelling the development of military aircraft technology and weaponry.