ABSTRACT
One of the great tragedies of the Second World War is that, for all the suffering it entailed, once it was over, oppression and the constant threat of renewed conflict persisted for many Europeans. The entire world was threatened by the Cold War that emerged between the Western democracies and the Communist Bloc, led by the Soviet Union. When Germany surrendered to the Allies, the future of Europe and the world as a whole was a subject of sharp disagreement. The Soviets intended to maintain control over Eastern Europe, and they believed that communist parties in Western European countries and in the Middle East would create opportunities for the further expansion of Soviet influence. The Soviet nuclear program, in particular, was enormously significant to the evolving dynamics of the Cold War. For the most part, the various Cold War military conflicts helped to confirm the most basic fact of the Cold War: the world had become essentially bipolar.
