From the chapter "Impacts of the Cold War: At Home and Abroad:" Based on your textbook reading, think about the history of the Cold War and how it...

I believe you are referring to the textbook U.S. History, Volume 2 by David Trowbridge. The conflict during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the U.S. is similar to the conflict between the Middle East and the Western world today because each side believed or believes the other wanted or wants global domination. 

Two events or issues that occurred during the Cold War were the American involvement in supporting countries that were rebuilding after World War II along capitalist lines through the Marshall Plan. This plan gave $12 billion to countries who participated to convince them that, as Trowbridge writes, the Americans were generous and wealthy, while the promises of economic wealth from communism were not true. Another event was the involvement of the U.S., through the United Nations, in the Korean War, which has been called the "Forgotten War." During the Cold War, the U.S. thought it was essential to become involved in Korea to prevent the further spread of communism. 

These two events are similar to events that have occurred recently in the Middle East. For example, the U.S., similar to the Marshall Plan, gives a great deal of foreign aid to countries it supports in the Middle East, including Israel and Afghanistan, and it uses aid to support allies in the region. In addition, American involvement in the Korean War is similar to the U.S. involvement in wars in the Middle East, including the first Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991 in reaction to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, and the 2003 Iraq War in which the U.S. ousted Saddam Hussein. The U.S. became involved in the Korean War in 1950 after communist forces occupied South Korea.

The issues of American involvement abroad are similar today to the issues during the Cold War, in that, as Trowbridge writes, Americans see foreign involvement as necessary to protect domestic interests. Americans also see their opponents as threatening in ways that go well beyond the immediate conflict at hand. As he writes about the USSR and the U.S., "What is clear is that both nations came to view the other as aggressive and committed to global domination by the early 1950s." The U.S. also sees its opponents in the Middle East today as desirous of world domination.