The Origins of the Cold War

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The Origins of the Cold War

• The blood-less conflict

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As World War II drew to a close, most people
around the world began to celebrate. However,
there were things already happening in Europe and
Asia that would change the next 40 years
dramatically.
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As Nazi Germany began to crumple, the Allied
Forces began to act from more selfish motives.
They began to trust each other less and less.
Most of the distrust occurred between the Soviet
Union the US.
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While the Americans, French, and British were
pushing in from the south, the Soviets squeezed
Germany from the East. As a result, the U.S.
Army captured Bavaria, the Nazi stronghold, while
the Soviets captured Berlin. This would have
repercussions later in the 20th Century.
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Military men and politicians from all of the
allied countries understood how important science
would be after the war. They also understood
that when Germany fell, her scientists would be
available to work for other countries. Each of
the powers made attempts to snatch German
scientists who specialized in rocket sciences,
physics, etc. America was especially successful
in acquiring scientists from the Peenemunde
facility.
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Thanks to the work of the German émigré, Albert
Einstein, America already had a nuclear/atomic
program that was working diligently to produce
atomic weapons. It was called the Manhattan
project and it became public knowledge when the
U.S. dropped 2 atomic bombs on Japan to end World
War II.
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After the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
scientific research moved towards the development
of the super. The 2 older bombs which were used
on Japan, nicknamed the skinny boy and the fat
man, were fission bombs. This meant that one
part of a Uranium atom was accelerated into
another Uranium atom to split it apart. The new
super bomb would be vastly more powerful and
would be a fusion bomb. This meant that multiple
atomic particles would be fused together creating
a new nucleus, that would quickly decay and emit
lots of energy. The first such bomb created and
tested used Hydrogen. The process was similar to
reactions that occur on the sun, and are
significantly more powerful than nuclear fission.
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Scientists working on the project had great
reservations about creating such a weapon. Many
believed that the fission weapons would certainly
be sufficient. The debate amongst Americas top
scientists became not if we could do it, but
should we do it. In the end, they did create it.
This is due in some part to the fact that he
Soviets acquired nuclear technology and exploded
their own test device in 1949.
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As far back as 1945, the Soviets knew of
Americas research into nuclear weapons. At the
Potsdam Conference between the Allies after
VE-Day, President Truman was astonished to find
that Premier Stalin had no reaction to the news
that America had a new weapon. The Soviets had
collected copious intelligence on the project
thanks to spies working on the Manhattan project
itself. In fact, the U.S.S.R. was working on its
own weapons at the time.
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It was convenient that military organizations
were already studying rocket science. The
Germans had figured out how to make a guided
rocket that could carry a conventional (regular
explosive) payload, and used it more or less
effectively against the British in the final
stages of the war. Now that same technology
would be used to carry nuclear payloads. At
least they could, and they were built in an
attempt of deterrence of actual nuclear conflict.

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Due to the nature of Communism, the Soviet Union
was intent on expanding. By 1956 they had added
territories in the Baltic States, Central Europe
and Eastern Europe to create a total of 16 Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics.
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The Soviets still wished to expand, but realized
the benefit of creating satellite states instead.
They invaded countries in Eastern Europe and set
up puppet governments. One by one they fell
Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Albania, Eastern
Germany, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and others.
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With all of Europe in ruins and the USSR making
incursion in Eastern Europe, the United States
wanted to make certain that Western Europe would
be strong enough to resist communism. The
support came in the form of an economic stimulus
plan called the Marshall Plan. Huge amounts of
money went into repairing the infrastructure and
businesses of Western Europe.
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As so it went for a decade. As one area of the
world became communist, another was given a dose
of capitalist democracy. From Cuba to Iran, from
Sputnik to Chuck Yeager breaking the sound
barrier the USA and the USSR competed with one
another throughout the 50s to gain the upper
hand.