by J. A. Stier

Created on: May 20, 2008

The Cold War, which took place from the 1950's until the 1970's, bares striking similarities to the periods before World War I and World War II. However, the United States and the Soviet Union never declared direct war on one another. To use a popular metaphor to describe the prewar periods, the "powder keg" never exploded, despite having all of the factors in place to ignite World War III and a potential nuclear holocaust.

Before World War I, conscription increased the size of the European armies to the millions. Every male was trained by the army, which lead to the militarization of society. Germany's General Staff System was adopted by almost every European country and a group of officers was tasked with preparing combat plans for future contingencies in hope of cutting down response time. In World War II, the "aggressor" nations, Germany, Japan and Italy, were lead by highly militaristic and ambitious men. Similarly, during the course of the Cold War, grammar through high school students were prepared for possible nuclear attacks with air raid drills alongside the more typical fire drills. Within the Soviet Union and the United States, vicious propaganda painted "the other" as a sinister, diabolical, inhuman figure. Mentally and socially, the nations were preparing for war.

The prominence of Alliances was another distinguishing factor between the predominately two and three-sided wars of the 18th and 19th centuries and the World Wars. When a single nation within an alliance is brought into a conflict, all nations of that alliance are, allowing wars to grow exponentially. This was a major cause of the "accidental" World War I, which began as a struggle between Austria and Serbia but ended up pulling in all of Europe on the side of either the Triple Entente or the Central Powers. World War II saw the rise of the Allies and the Axis. Now the Cold War saw much of the world separated into West and East, or NATO and the Warsaw Pact respectively. As a result, war between the United States and the Soviet Union need not begin between the two of them. Any of their allies could set off a struggle that could potentially end the human race.

Albert Einstein once said "you cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." Before World War I and World War II, and during the Cold War, countries were hurriedly preparing themselves for the war which seemed inevitable. Governments poured resources and capital into military-themed inventions meant to kill the "other guy" more

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