The Direct Cause for the Cold War

War marks the start and end of eras. It is crucial to the development of human development society and is a way for victors to gain global power. Sometimes wars end in peace, other times they end with chaos. World War II had a particular magnitude. Millions of soldiers sacrificed their lives for their countries, and nations' infrastructures were destroyed, causing a significant economic recession. Even when the brutal war ended with an Allied Powers (United States, USSR, United Kingdom, and France) victory, it created chaos between two of the most prominent Allied powers: the United States and the USSR. The ending of World War II marked the start of the Cold War, and World War II was a direct cause of the Cold War because it brought about further realizations of political-ideological differences, conflicts in economic reconstruction methods, and military animosity.

Political-ideological differences between the USSR and the United States in World War II widened the gap between the two global superpowers and caused the Cold war. Karl Marx’s communism was the main ideology that influenced the USSR during that time period. Its central document, The Communist Manifesto, stated that the core of communism advocates for no social class and no private property, which means absolute equality with no exception, and that the government made of a single party has the utmost power. The USSR propagandized that the unequal distribution of wealth was the reason for all social problems and that forming a utopian society as described in the Communist Manifesto was possible. This directly opposed the United States' democratic values. The United States’ democracy advocates for citizens’ rights to private property and control of production. Also, the USSR’s communism did not allow any political dissent, unlike the U.S., where citizens have the right to choose between different political parties. The expansion of these divides after World War II was illustrated by the publishing of Animal Farm in 1945, which heavily criticized the USSR’s communist utopian society. In Animal Farm, communism could only become a dictatorship where loyal believers are taken advantage of. The political ideologies of the two countries were polar opposites. The end of World War II further revealed that the two ideas could not coexist, marking the start of a competition for both countries to enforce their own ideologies upon the rest of the world, thus triggering the Cold War.

While differing political ideologies were the underlying reasons for the Cold War, the more apparent causes were conflicts related to economic reform following World War II. The abrupt termination of the Lend-Lease Program was a major trigger of these disagreements. While the United States was actively handing out supplies to Allied Nations during World War II, they never responded when the USSR asked for economic aid with economic reconstruction. Instead, the U.S. terminated the program causing discontent in the USSR. Truman wanted to send a message of “an immediate showdown” to coerce the USSR to recognize the United States as the leading power. This escalated the tension between the two countries, marking a clear schism of economic ties. To reform their nation’s economy after the war, the USSR adopted a so-called planned economy, which opposed the idea of a market economy promoted by the United States. The government's adoption of a planned economy meant less economic freedom. The United States promoted the opposite, letting the market answer to supply and demand, which offered the government minimal control over the market. The difference in these economic systems following World War II made it impossible for the two countries to develop mutual trade relationships. With no economic connections, they had to outcompete one another economically to maintain respective global dominance. By this time, the Cold War seemed inevitable.

Besides the economic reforms that triggered the Cold War, military threats between the two countries contributed as well. The emergence of a nuclear weapon at the end of World War II was a critical catalyst for the Cold War. The dropping of the second atomic bomb in Nagasaki was perceived as a gesture to force the Japanese to surrender and show the USSR the military power of the United States. The military arms race started there. Instead of considering the possible casualties and damage to human life, USSR reports mainly focused on damage to infrastructure and inanimate objects to help them further perfect the Soviet Nuclear Project. Stalin felt threatened by the United States and raced toward obtaining a nuclear weapon. But it didn’t end there. After the USSR obtained nuclear weapons, they posed a bigger threat to the United States. Nuclear weapon production seemed never-ending for both countries, and maintaining mutual destruction seemed inevitable. The competition extended into space when the USSR launched a ballistic missile in 1957. To prove that the United States had the same technology and military range, NASA (a newly created branch in 1958 with the mission of ensuring leadership in space) started developing space travel technology. From that point on, they made many breakthroughs in space technology, including sending Neil Armstrong to the moon eleven years later. These military and space competitions were all rooted in the United States’ desire to show off its military power using nuclear weapons.

World War II illuminated differences in ideologies, conflicts in methods of economic reconstruction, and military threats posed by both the USSR and the United States. These disagreements then directly caused the Cold War. The Cold War only ended when the USSR dissolved into component republics such as Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia. The United States emerged victorious in the Cold War and set new orders for other countries to follow until recently. Now, given the rapid growth of the People’s Republic of China, the United States and China have begun a new conflict in the twenty-first century for reasons similar to those that caused the Cold War. It is likely that, like with the Cold War, the country that emerges victorious from this will be crowned the leader of the global stage for the next century.

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