Let’s not be arrogant here. The US provoked the USSR just as much, if not more than the USSR provoked the US during the Cold War. To pretend that the US was just minding its own business and just kept getting ‘bothered’ by those big, bad Russians is revisionist history of the highest order. To put it in simpler terms, it was a giant ‘pissing contest’.
The US was guilt-tripped into believing that WWII started because the US didn’t join The League of Nations and isolationalism emboldened Hitler, therefore the US was no longer going to stand on the sidelines after WWII.
Well put.
Both sides had reasons to distrust the other from the start, both sides played deadly games of provocation with the other and neither side wanted the all out war they were both using as the ultimate intimidation tactic.
Both sides indulged in lots of hatred, paranoia and stupidity.
Thankfully neither side committed the ultimate act of insanity.