Convened at a time of great upheaval around the world, at the height of the Cold War, armed conflict in Vietnam, and a period of nationalist and anti-colonialist struggles, the Bandung Asian-African Conference of 1955 was an unprecedented and unrepeated moment of unity of purpose among the 29 independent Asian and African nations represented there, and for some years a beacon of hope for the two goals of non-alignment and Afro-Asian solidarity. It is widely considered the inspiration that led to the eventual founding of the Non-Aligned Movement.