Friends and Foes

Rivalries during the Cold War mirror rivalries that we have seen all through history. During the Cold War, (which mainly consisted of a bunch of countries growling at each other) tensions were running high between not only the West and East, but between communist groups themselves. The tensions between the East and the West resembled tensions between almost all European countries just before WWI. No one wanted to be the one to provoke a fight, but both sides were bent on being stronger and more well-equiped than the other. They were also both tangled up with alliances and complicated political divisions. The difference here is that while the assassination in Serbia was the final straw which started WWI, the Cold War never escalated to that level. Instead, the countries managed to negotiate their way out of a possible nuclear war.