Why did the USA get involved in the Cold War?


The Cold War

2 Answers | Add Yours

noahvox2's profile pic

Posted on

After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as world's dominant powers. Their diametrically opposed political systems and their status as the world's only two nuclear powers made it virtually inevitable that the two nations would come into conflict, a conflict that became known as the Cold War.

Although the two sides never met in formal warfare on the battlefield, the two nations prepared for war as if they eventually would have armed conflict. The economic benefits of the Cold War undoubtedly benefitted manufacturers of weapons systems and technology. Thousands of bombs, missiles, and other items thought to be needed for war were manufactured by both the Americans and the Soviets.

The United States' program to launch spacecraft was also spurred on by the Soviets' efforts to do the same. The Soviets won the race to send a human being into space, but the Americans became the first to have a human being land on Earth's moon.

Thus, this so-called Cold War caused both the Americans and the Soviets to compete against each other in a number of areas, especially those associated with the military.

At its most basic level, though, the Americans became involved in the Cold War out of fear at the rise of Soviet power.

emanneh's profile pic

Posted on

Following the second World War the "war of words" as well as the desire for the position of world leader seemed to be evident from an analysis of US History.A position in history appeared crucial to being a superpower. Russia surpassed the US with the launch of Sputnik and the United States desired to regain its position as a superpower.

United States history was open and evident to the world where goings on in Russia were closed. I grew up in the 1950's and saw the image of communism which was projected to our country. We grew up in this time period fearing the "superpower." I am half Russian and would never admit it during this period.

Those noteworthy individuals who contributed to our culture as a child and now as an adult were an integrated part of our interwoven heritage as seen in the work of Tchaikovsky, Checkov, Pavlov and the creator of the Periodic table, Dmitri Mendeleev.


 Russia turned out to be a hidden treasure. I was so impressed with what I saw in 2005 that I returned in 2007. This is one fabulous country with incredible people.

We’ve answered 302,183 questions. We can answer yours, too.

Ask a question