Was The Cold War Inevitable

Many factors would give rise to a tense time period known as the Cold War, and it would ultimately have a great deal of affect on American policy at home and abroad. Subsequently, there are four key events that initiated the Cold War: the end of WWII, the rise of Stalin, the Atomic bombs dropped on Japan, and a new Red Scare. To analyze it's begging we must first focus on the true main catalyst, WWII.

It has often been argued that the Cold War was inevitable. At the end of WWII, casualties amounted in the tens of millions, governments were on the brink of collapse, and fear was at an all time high. Once the defeat of Nazi Germany became imminent, the USA and the USSR no longer had room for friendship. Following this, a race

Stalin was able to single handily finalize the great divide between capitalism and communism, destroying all hope of reconciliation. "...Stalin had proclaimed the superiority of the Soviet Communist system of government and declared that peace was impossible “under the present capitalist development of the world economy”3 is a point of view seen by the author of America: a Narrative History, that I found to be damning evidence for Stalin's role in creating a stigma that war was now inevitable. On the American side, there was utter distrust for Stalin, however at this point the USA took a different approach rather than direct aggression. Through the View of an influential politician and historian Kennan, the USA took a stance to not directly antagonize Russia and held the belief that communism was self-destructive at its core. 4 An idea that is often overlooked as to the spark that aided in WWII was the introduction of the Atomic bombs dropped on

It is entirely likely that the first bomb was only necessary to persuade Japan to surrender, but that the second one may have indeed been used as warning the Russia at the time. "The dropping of the atomic bombs was not so much the last military act of the Second World War as the first major operation of the Cold War with Russia... "As the Soviet Union's entry into the war became imminent, the United States dropped the atomic bombs to gain supremacy over the Soviet Union after the war"5 is a piece I learned from my journal assignment and has greatly helped explain the importance of this monumental event and its aid to the rise of the Cold War. Needless to say, this show of force caused fear in Russia, which then would bring about an arms race in which the Soviet nuclear program would attempt to rival that of the American force. With all of the following coming together, a great deal of fear would perpetuate among both parties, ultimately bring the Cold War