The Cold War

The cold war was simply the result of the two super powers, following the end of World War II, to influence world affairs and prevent one another from being influenced by the other. The cold war was essentially and ideological war between capitalism and communism.

Germany was a point of contention between the US and the USSR. Stalin wanted to use Germany’s resources to rescue the Russian failing and battered economy. The US feared that it would have to bail out Germany and the communist USSR. The involved nations could not agree on the fate of Ger many so it was then decided to divide Germany, essentially into a communist and a capitalist side. Both nations wanted to control Europe and in their efforts they entered into a decades long symbolic war.

The development of Atomic and Hydrogen bombs also proved to be problematic for the US-USSR relationship. Both sides wanted to be in power and not allow the other to have more influence on world affairs. Both powers wanted to have the upper hand in weaponry. Eventually this lead to scientific advancement of nuclear technology. It is likely that Russia feared that it would be to suffer an atomic attack and so it intensified its development in order to deter the US from using an atomic bomb against Russia. Thankfully neither nation was prepared to launch a full scale nuclear war because of their fear of using nuclear weapons.

The formation of NATO made the USSR suspicious of how much NATO members would seek to interfere in Russian affairs. The creation of NATO further deteriorated the US-USSR relationship since it was well known that NATO was an attempt to contain Russia. From the communist perspective, NATO probably appeared dangerous since it would unite western nations against the USSR.