What Prevented WWIII from Breaking Out

Paper Summary:

The paper relates that one popular stance as to why a "Third World War" did not break out in Europe after 1945 stems largely from the U.S. and U.S.S.R. both building their nuclear arsenals during this period so that a war became a "zero-sum" game in which any gain for the U.S.S.R. was seen as a loss for the U.S., and vice-versa; therefore, the very existence of these deadly weapons, which could eradicate the entire world's population, prevented a major war. The author points out that John Meuller's "War is Futile" theory, which clearly states that there would have been an obsolescence of major war during the Cold War period with or without nuclear armaments, because, after the decimation and emotional turmoil of World War I, there was a gradual turning away from war and warlike activities; if not for Hitler, there would have been no World War II. The paper relates John Lewis Gaddis' "The Long Peace" theory in which he argues that bi-polarity is a system in and of itself and, by its very existence, can produce a kind of stability; alliances, such as NATO and the Warsaw Treaty, in a bipolar system, work as stabilizing elements, forcing the superpowers on both ends of the pole to take a more international stance.

Table of Contents
Introduction
The US, USSR and British Alliance; the 'Big 3', 1941-45
A Deterioration of Trust and Ending of the Alliance
The Cold War and the Absence of a Great War
Nuclear Weapons Theory
War is Futile Theory, Meuller
Systems Theory, Gaddis
Additional Thoughts
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"After 1945, with the common threats eliminated, USSR, under the leadership of Stalin, inevitably began to assert power over Eastern Europe. Therefore, "a gradual process began in countries liberated by the Red Army, which eventually resulted in governments across Eastern Europe using police state methods and carrying out Soviet-style economic reforms." While it does not seem implausible that Stalin would attempt to reconstruct USSR's neighboring, decimated countries post-World War II, it is nevertheless around this time that the US and Britain began to see these moves as USSR's attempt to take unilateral action, thereby breaking the alliance and not holding fast to the agreements made at the Yalta Conference. The US, in particular, wondered just how far the USSR would go in spreading its communist ideology."

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