Baby, It's Cold Outside

Though the main rivalry of the Cold War was that between the West and the East, or more specifically, the United States and the USSR, there were many other important ones that can be related to those that we studied previously. The tensions between countries in this time are most easily connected to those directly before World War II. In this metaphor, the USSR takes the place of Germany. As Germany did, the USSR allied itself with several countries over the course of its rising power. When these countries were no longer needed or put up rebellion, however, they were invaded in spite of agreements otherwise. Specifically, I relate the peace agreement between Germany, Britain, and France to that between Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the USSR. The USSR's rivalry with other communist states can be related to the contention between differences between fascist nations, namely Germany and Italy. Despite having the same beliefs on government, cultural and geographical opposition between the USSR, China, and Vietnam caused dispute and brought threats of nuclear war (like fascist Japan and the United States). Though the latter pair never made it to the stage of blows, the inevitability of an eventual war between the two had they kept their power was great. So while different countries participated in each of these conflicts, this history is still one that reoccurs.