Why was the Cold War called a “cold” war? It was called a “cold” war because there were no direct military confrontations between the United States on one side and the USSR on the other side. This is compared to World Wars 1 and 2 which had gone before and were hot wars because there was a lot of direct military action. The phrase was probably coined by George Orwell.
The Cold War is said to have started in 1947, but there was no real starting date, more of a gradual shift in policy. It wasn’t a regular war with a declaration, so it is difficult to say which of many events was the start. The process began during World War 2 and only got worse after it finished. The Americans didn’t like Stalin’s system of government and they didn’t like communism and the USSR’s desire for power. The Russians didn’t like the fact that America had been so late joining the war, after millions of Russians had been killed by the Germans and they didn’t like the way America was trying to stop them become a player on the world stage. After the Russians beat back the Germans from Russia and started to force them back towards Berlin, America and the Allies realized that the USSR was a presence that couldn’t be ignored. The Cold War might have been avoided if there had been changes in thinking on both sides and some kind of compromise, but after World War 2, that became less likely. The USSR occupied most of Eastern Europe and cemented themselves as a world super power.
After World War 2, with Europe, and seemingly the world, split between the two powers, things began to get worse. The USA believed that the USSR planned to take over the world and spread communism. They believed that the USSR was the enemy. At the same time, the USSR resented America’s attempts to contain the USSR and they blamed America for an arms race and threats. Things became even worse when the USSR was able to test their first nuclear bomb in 1949. The logic behind the nuclear arms race that started when Russia built their first bomb was that both sides needed more weapons to ensure they wouldn’t be destroyed, and this is the beginning of the Cold War.
The phrase Cold War was coined by the famous author George Orwell. He wrote an article on October 19th, 1945 for the Tribune Newspaper in Britain. The war was only a few months over and the new world looked bleak. Orwell writes about two things. It looks like the USSR is about to develop a nuclear bomb, which it would do a few years later, and the first thing he is concerned with is how easy nuclear bombs are to manufacture. He talks about the history of warfare and how something like the breech-loading rifle changed history, not just because it was simple and deadly, but because it was easy and cheap to mass-produce. He believes that if nuclear bombs can be mass-produced, civilization will end. He doubts this is true, though, and that brings his second point. If both superpowers possess a weapon so deadly that they can’t actually use it, then their only choice is to use it as a threat and thus the two superpowers will rule the world in “a permanent state of “cold war” with their neighbors.” Orwell used the expression in another newspaper article the following year. It was then used in speeches and by 1947, it was the accepted term for what was happening. Whether the people used it after Orwell used it because of what he wrote, or if they came up with the expression themselves is unknowable.
Orwell was right that the two superpowers would only be able to use their weapons as a threat. Even today, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, America is loath to attack Russia for fear of what could happen. However, the war between the two countries might be cold because they can’t attack each other, but they can certainly attack and use countries that they influence. The USSR and the USA were never directly at war, but they were on different sides of numerous conflicts. The Korean War and the Vietnam War are two obvious examples. America went out of its way to influence and attack countries on the pretense of saving them from communism. The USSR influenced and attacked countries on the pretense of just saving them. And all of this continued until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. And this is what I learned today.
Photo by Дмитрий Трепольский: https://www.pexels.com/photo/the-famous-saint-basil-s-cathedral-in-russia-8285167/
Sources
https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history
https://diplomacy.state.gov/discover-diplomacy/period/cold-war-diplomacy