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As such, here would be periods of relative calm followed by high tension, which held the possibility of another world war. The Rivalry for dominance over the post-war world actually began prior to World War 2 between the U. S. And the Soviet Union since U. S. Presidents Franklin Roosevelt as well as Harry Truman and Soviet premier Joseph Stalin never trusted each other, even while working together to defeat the Nazis. The success of their alliance had left the USSR and the US with profound economic and political differences.
Important ideological differences separated the two countries as well. As such, both countries found themselves succumbing to the classic prisoners’ dilemma in which working together would produce the best result, but with a lot on stake, neither side could and would risk trusting the other. At the same time, however, both the United States and the USSR did much to prevent the Cold War from escalating to a higher level, as both countries knew how devastating a nuclear war would be to both sides and most of the furious exchanges were just empty wreaths.
U. S. President Truman, for example, kept the Korean War limited by not using nuclear weapons against North Korea and China, aware that doing so would force the USSR to retaliate. President Dwight Eisenhower kept away from the Hungarian Revolution, knowing well that the USSR would not tolerate interference in Eastern Europe. CNN has shown the two main figureheads of the Cold War; U. S. And U. S. S. R. Presidents John Kennedy (bottom left) and Mikhail Geographer (center right) respectively inferno of their national flags.
Likewise, The Soviet Union made sacrifices to keep the war “cold” by backing down from the Cuban missile crisis. However, both powers were not willing to surrender and kept fighting on for various personal reasons. President Truman stated, ‘ ‘We have to get tough with the Russians. They don’t know how to behave. They are like bulls in a china shop We have got to teach them how to behave.