When WWII ended, on a sour note, Europe was in ruins, and US wanted to help. But the USSR did not want the US to help, causing tension. Also, the USSR was a little shook by how the war ended, with the US dropping large atomic bombs on important Japanese cities, such as Hiroshima. The easy use of nuclear weapons made the USSR nervous that when times get bad, the US could snap and bomb them.
The US felt threatened by the USSR’s form of government, called communism, and how rapidly it was spreading. Compared to their own form of government, capitalism, communism was not a good idea. So, the US tried to employ a strategy called containment. Containment was a defensive strategy that …show more content…
Much different than the recent WWII, Cold war was mostly built on verbal communication and threats. The main form of fighting, was words.There was no actual combat, but there was talk of it. Something that could have been physically bad, were the nuclear weapons that were spoke of during this time. Governments on either side of the fighting were manufacturing more nuclear weapons than ever, to purely intimidate the other side. Neither country would bomb the either, for fear of retaliation. This was called a, “Balance of terror.” (Doc 7). During this time, the number of different kinds of weapons, like long-range bombers, and intercontinental ballistic missiles, were produced fast. The USSR had a secret production area that the Americas were not aware of. Cuba. When President John F. Kennedy found at that this was going on, he asked Khruschev to discontinue this practice, and remove the missiles, for the general well being of the world. (Doc 8). Khruschev responded coolly, and said that they had only given them missiles for defense,