When I was little, I was afraid of planes flying over the house, because I thought that WW2 was still going on and the Nazis were going to bomb my house. No matter how many times my parents reassured me that WW2 was over, and Germany never invaded/bombed the U.S., I was still afraid for at least a few months.

Dan

When I was five or six, the United States was engaged in the First [Persian] Gulf War. However, in general conversation my parents only ever referred to it as the "Gulf War" which led me to believe that the United States was fighting Saddam Hussein in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Florida. I was deathly afraid that Saddam and Company were going to invade the United States and enslave us all.

J.

i used to believe that if there were bombings, that the world will split in half..

kins

When I was in third grade, we read about Sadako and the thousand paper cranes. From then on, I was worried that the USA was going to nuke Canada, where I live.

Sammi

I used to think that the world could end at any second from a nuclear attack and I would even lie awake at night, worrying and crying about it. When I asked my Dad if we could at least get some prior notice, and he said yes, that really reassured me, and the thought never bothered me again. Wierd--as long as we would get some prior notice, it didn't scare me as much.

Anon

When I first heard of World War II, stupid enough, I didn't realise World War I existed before it, so I always say World War instead of pointing out which one. Then I got questioned in a history lesson "which one?" I answered grumpily, "world war II, DUH!!"

Anon

when i was 5 my mum told me that hitler was an evil man, from then on i thought he was the devil

death bunny

I used to think that World War II took place on a field in Los Angeles (where I lived). I thought that you could just go to where the war was going on and watch it through a chain-link fence.

Lili

When I was younger I thought that the Cold War was named "cold war" because of how cold it was in the Soviet Union compared to the United States. Anytime anyone talked about the Cold War, I would picture a bunch of soldiers and tanks in the middle of a gigantic blizzard.

Confused Missouri Kid

I used to believe that a war was a real competition like a football match where a country would take a million or so people and let them shoot each other on some deserted piece of countryside until one country had nobody left, this meant I thought both World Wars were big tournaments like the World Cup, and Britain beat Germany in the final both times.

Chris

I was into wars and battles when I was a child, I used to believe that if I was a pilot in the war and captured in Germany that I could blag my way out of it and say I loved Germany, I thought they would give
me my own german plane, then I would fly back to England and be free.

The Fluffster

Being young and naively honest, I didn't realize that war was based on deception: The suprise attack-the deception that there is no plan to attack. I thought that the war chiefs would call each other and arrange a meeting time for their soldiers to fight each other. Along with this was the belief that they had to use a vacant field as a battleground. This was how my mind made sense of the question, "How do they know when and where to fight?"

Anon

i used to believe that the Civil war was called the Silver war. i also thought that there was a Gold war and Bronze war too.

tori

This is actually a common belief among children. But, when I was little, I used to believe that the Cival War was called the Silver War.

Anon