What was the Cold War about?
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In *very* simplified terms, USA and Russia both came out of WWII with a lot of political, economic, and military power. Russia didn’t want USA to get more power. America didn’t want Russia to get more power. Russia wanted more power. America wanted more power.
This put America and Russia at odds with each other.
Technologically, militarily, politically, and economically they were rivals.
This put America and Russia at odds with each other.
America wanted everyone to be aligned with them whether they were allies or not and so spent a lot of effort on spreading ‘capitalism’ and installing pro-america rulers. Russia wanted everyone to be aligned with them whether they were allies or not and so spent a lot of effort on spreading ‘communism’ and installing pro-russia rulers.
This put America and Russia at odds with each other.
The problem was… nukes. America was able to produce nukes and had the technology and logistics to deliver them anywhere in the world. Russia was able to produce nukes and had the technology and logistics to deliver them anywhere in the world.
Nobody wants to be nuked.
America and Russia did everything they could to hamstring each other’s efforts around the world but tried their damndest to not actually cross the line into direct conflict where one side might get desperate enough to try and use nukes which would immediately result in the other side also using nukes.
It wasn’t a war. But it wasn’t *not* a war. It wasn’t a hot war with soldiers and tanks and planes directly fighting the enemy. It was a cold war with subterfuge and proxies and puppets.
So what was it about? The same thing war is always about. Power.
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