Question

Can anyone tell me how/why the Cold War could or couldn’t have been averted? (You can do this in your own opinion as well.)

Answer 1

Personally, I don't think the Cold War could have been averted as the tensions between the US and the USSR were too high. The USSR was one of if not THE most influential communist countries in the world and the USSR believed in the Domino Effect which stated that is one country "fell" to communism the rest would too. We also were in an arms race with the USSR as we believed we had a missile gap. We even set up a blockade of ships or a "quarantine" as JFK called it, to prevent them from setting more missiles up in Cuba (this essentially is the Cuban Missle Crisis). Not to mention the space race which truly was a matter of pride and dignity.