Cold War Domino Effect

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The Cold War, perhaps the closest humanity has gotten to virtually obliterating themselves. There were two contenders to this play which brought forth their conflicting ideologies which inevitably clashed. The name itself is misleading as there was not a major conflict between the world superpowers but menacing glances in the other direction with a handful of wars ‘supported’ by conflicting sides. (Which is more of a staring contest/ arm wrestling on top of a nuclear bomb scenario. (Which itself is an actual comic.)) The Cold War was not a single fault of a single contender but rather a domino effect (and a butterfly effect) which led to the collapse of trust between the world powers and eventually a seemingly endless tension that boiled up …show more content…

Both countries tried to expand their spheres of influence, and intimidated the other to prove their superiority. However at the end of the day, neither can be fully accounted as the sole cause as many of the causes are in a way, intertwined where one event (or fault) of a country is the direct consequence of the following act of the other country. If one were to trace back to the origin and find the root and sole cause of each country, the Manhattan Project and the Russian Revolutions can be seen as the ‘prime dominoes’ that slowly toppled more in its wake. It should be noted that both events on their own, are not solely ‘responsible’ for the Cold War, but instead it was the gradual buildup of tension that arose as more dominoes are toppled down. (The Manhattan Project alone could not have convinced the Soviets that the United States was aggressive. Similarly, the Russian Revolution could not have been seen as aggressive since the United States had a policy of isolationism.) One country forced the other out of their isolationist shell while the other taunted the former with a weapon of tremendous magnitude. Conclusively, the Cold War was not caused by the single-handed actions of a country, nor both countries; it was a slow collapse of trust that accelerated with each county’s act of

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