World War III (also called WWIII or the Third World War) is a hypothetical conflict that denotes a successor to World War II (1939–1945). The conflict would be on a global scale, with common speculation that it would probably be a nuclear war and devastating in nature.
In the wake of World War I, World War II, the commencement of the Cold War and the development, testing and use of nuclear weapons, there was early widespread speculation as to the next global war. This war was anticipated and planned for by military and civil authorities, and explored in fiction in many countries. Concepts ranged from the limited use of atomic weapons, to the destruction of the planet.
Read more about World War III: Alternative Views, Popular Culture, Further Reading
Famous quotes containing the words world war, world, war and/or iii:
“I date the end of the old republic and the birth of the empire to the invention, in the late thirties, of air conditioning. Before air conditioning, Washington was deserted from mid-June to September.... But after air conditioning and the Second World War arrived, more or less at the same time, Congress sits and sits while the presidents—or at least their staffs—never stop making mischief.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“Cleopatra: Was I right to avenge myself?... Caesar: If one man in all the world can be found, now or forever, to know that you did wrong, that man will have either to conquer the world as I have, or be crucified by it.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
““... War is for everyone, for children too.
I wasn’t going to tell you and I mustn’t.
The best way is to come uphill with me
And have our fire and laugh and be afraid.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The army is the true nobility of our country.”
—Napoleon Bonaparte III (1808–1873)