“Cold war” differs from “hot war”in the matter of violent conflict. In a hot war, actual military hostilities occur. No such hostilities occur in a cold war, but it is the nature of the concept that a cold war can erupt into a hot war at any time. In the historical struggle between the West, led by the United States, and the Soviet Union and its satellites in Eastern Europe, no hot war ever developed. However, a nuclear catastrophe nearly did occur during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Moreover, tensions over the status of West Berlin through the Cold War threatened to erupt militarily at various times. Nevertheless, the two dominant superpowers managed to avoid open hostilities largely because they came to realize what ruin they faced if they allowed their conflict to develop into nuclear warfare.
QUESTION: What were the causes of the Cold War and how did it develop?