The Inevitability of the Cold War

When it comes to the Cold War, many debate over who really caused the whole crisis to
happen. Some say the Soviet Union rightfully needed to compete with the United States to
protect themselves and others say that the stressful stand-off was caused by the Soviets
unwillingness to cooperate with the agreements that the Allies were trying to make and the plans
they were trying to set into place. The truth to all of this is that the Cold War was inevitable.
With the want for power between the United States and the Soviet Union and the fear of the
deadly nuclear weapons, there were too many factors for this war not to happen. And in my
opinion, in some way, many positives came out of the Cold War.
Looking back on most wars, a want for power or a fear of being controlled are two
factors that have always played big roles. Joseph Stalin made the Cold War no different. When
World War 2 ended, the Americans and Soviets, who had fought together to destroy Hitlers nazi
regime, began to knock heads with each other over the occupation of Germany. While the Soviet
Union was trying to strengthen its expanding nation, the US was trying to avoid the spread of
communism in Western Europe. It only got worse when the Truman Doctrine established the
helping of the European countries that werent already communist and the Marshall Plan
provided large sums of money to those countries governments. But the Soviet Unions power
only got stronger with China joining their side and Cuba joining them as well. Neither the US
nor the large Soviet Union were going to stand down with both wanting to stay world powers,
but when it was not opposing governments facing off, it was fear of attack. Not infantry attacks,
but attacks with nuclear weapons.
With death tolls of American soldiers rising by the day, the United States needed some
way to end World War 2. They had gotten the job done against Germany, with help from the
Soviet Union ironically, but Japan seemed relentless to give up fighting in the Pacific. With all of
that in mind, Harry Truman approved the dropping of two atomic (nuclear) bombs on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, Japan. The bombings introduced the world to the deadliest weapon it had ever
seen. Seeing the death and devastation these bombs brought with them, many nations that
werent firm allies with the United States grew worrisome. Coinciding with this growing fear,
the Soviet Union made it clear that they would begin making nuclear weapons of their own and
this would start the arms race. Although I am American, I understand the Soviet Unions idea
that they needed nuclear weapons to match ours. For their own safety, the Soviets were not going
to stop making nuclear weapons and because of this, the Cold War was bound to happen.
Luckily, the mass production of nuclear weapons by both sides made the bombs more of a
consequence than a threat. Both sides had the troops to begin a real war but that never happened
because both sides feared a nuclear attack and this was a bright side that came out of the Cold
War. Since then this fear has mostly been able to keep peace between major countries that have
these weapons.
So in retrospect, the Cold War really was inevitable. With the Soviet Union leading a
steady growth of communism in Europe and the United States dropping the two atomic bombs
on Japan, there was no way around the Cold War and there was no one world power to blame.
Although it lead the way to many other nations stockpiling nuclear weapons, the Cold War
changed world relations for the better and there have been no world wars since then.
Bibliography
1. The Cold War. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Cold-War.aspx


2. The Cold War Museum. The Cold War Museum
http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/index.asp