Was the Cold War Inevitable

Abstract

After the Second World War, the greatest power in the 19(superscript th) century; Britain; was totally exhausted, only two countries were left as the greatest powers at the center of international arena: the United States and the Soviet Union. After a period of cooperation against their common enemies in the Second World War, the two fresh leaders started to confront each other in the next fifty years, which produced a great amount of influence upon the international system. This paper started from the Russian revolution, and the international relations after the establishment of the Soviet Union. Firstly, it analyses Soviet fear and suspicion to the western powers, then gradually develop its analysis into the American-Soviet relations before the Cold War, Truman's tough style was also included as a part of this section. Finally, this paper points at whether the Cold War was inevitable or not, and reached a rather pessimistic conclusion.