WAS THE COLD WAR CAUSED BY THE ENDING OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR OR WAS IT
The Cold War lasted 45 years and held the fate of the world in its grasp. The icy wasteland of stalemate and mutually assured destruction kept the world safe, but was the Cold War a by-product of the Second World War or was it always inevitable? There is much evidence for both arguments and I will conclude whether the Cold War was caused by the ending of the Second World War or whether it was inevitable and would have happened regardless. The seeds of the Cold War were first sown in 1933, when the United States of America diplomatically recognised Soviet Russia. ... Both countries had drawn back into themselves during the inter-war years and this was the first time the two societies saw how the other operated. ... This amazing transformation helped to boost the ideals that communism proclaimed in a time of failing world economy. ... The side that the world didn’t see. ... Kennan observed that “There can be no possible middle ground or compromise between the two… The two systems cannot even exist in the same world unless an economic cordon is put around one or the other of them” . This statement as early as 1933 puts the roots of the Cold War into context. ... With a closed mind such as this, is it any wonder that the Cold War occurred? Another point of concern for the pre-war United States was the strength that Soviet Russia was beginning to amass. ... The Second World War created a new world system of politics. In the aftermath much had changed, the face of Europe had been devastated, the complete and total collapse of Germany, Japan and France and the severely weakened Great Britain left a huge power vacuum on the world stage. ... The USSR had ended the war with the largest army the world had ever known and the US wielding the greatest industrial power in history .