Introduction to the Cold War

Hello! As you can see from the title of this blog, the central theme here will be the 1960's. Obviously, one cannot speak or write about this decade without addressing the Cold War. Therefore, the main goal of this post will be to give the reader some insight into the reasons that led the two superpowers of the 20th-century to threaten each other (and the rest of the world) with the prospect of a nuclear war. That will, of course, require us to go as back as the 1940s, to the end of WWII.

After Nazi Germani surrendered, in 1945, it started to become noticeable that the wartime alliances between the USA (along with Great Britain) and the Soviet Union were, at best, uneasy. In 1948, the Soviets had installed left-wing governments in Eastern Europe, which made the Americans and the British fear for a permanent Soviet domination of the region and of Soviet-influenced communist parties coming to power in democracies of Western Europe.

On the other hand, the USSR wanted to maintain control of Eastern Europe to safeguard against any possible renewed threat from Germany. Also, for ideological purposes that we might discuss another time, the Soviets wanted to spread Communism worldwide.

The Cold War would then evolve to a much more complex deadlock, with contingency after contingency delaying (and eventually avoiding) the actual Nuclear War that these countries were threatening each other with.

I'll leave you with two quotes from two of my idols. These quotes, I believe are central to how dangerous and absurd a Nuclear War would be to Humanity:

• "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Albert Einstein.

• "The Nuclear Arms Race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five." Carl Sagan.

José Teixeira