by Vincent Maxwell

Created on: November 23, 2009   Last Updated: November 24, 2009

When it comes to the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, it was a rivalry that brought the world to the brink of destruction. The end of World War Two ignited the conflict in full scale as both sides did everything in their power to become the superior nation, grabbing technology and allies as fast as each could muster.

Now even before the Cold War there was a lot of mistrust on both sides. The United States did not trust the Soviet Union due to its shady non aggression pact with Germany at the beginning of the war. The USSR did not trust The United States because of its refusal to recognize it as a nation until 1933.

There are more reasons that fueled the mistrust, but above all it was the different governments and their ideas of what the right way to govern a country were. To look through the history of the United States, or Russia for that matter, there have always been countries that were not trusted, and yet no Cold War occurred.

The reason it happened between the USA and the USSR was due to the massive amount of influence and resources both sides possessed. Every event in the world became almost a competition between the two. However it was not mistrust alone but also just heavy differences in everything from day to day living, to current events.

For example, at the end of World War Two, Berlin was divided, giving The USSR control of the Eastern portion of the city, and the USA the western. Now the USSR was angry at Germany for the war, for the ravaged state of Russia, and wanted to punish east Berlin with lack of supplies.

Now the USA on the other hand had learned its lesson from World War One and understood that instead of severely punishing Germany, it would help it rebuild. East Berlin was soon getting desperate, this caused the USA to take action and begin to air drop supplies into the starving population.

Now issues like this among many others that took place during the Cold War were not based off mistrust between the two superpowers, but just a difference of opinion. But as the USA found way back then, difference of opinion and mistrust go hand in hand.

Every time there was a difference of opinion, the mistrust grew. The more the mistrust grew, the more each side pointed out the difference of opinion. Each side labeled the other as wrong and bad. And just like a snowball, it only grew the farther down the hill we got.

Even today after the collapse of the USSR, there still is mistrust between the USA and Russia. Although things have gotten better, the Russian people still live in a completely different culture. That does not make one side right or wrong, for the USA is just as guilty for the Cold War as the USSR was. So looking back, yes if both sides would have trusted each other, we would be looking at a different world today.

However as important of a factor as it was, like many other major events in history it was not the only one. Hopefully the world has learned its lessons from the Cold War and realize that even though we may not trust each other, we all have to live together.

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