ELI5: What caused the Cold War?

The Cold War started because two huge, powerful neighbors had completely opposite ideas about how to run the neighborhood, and they stopped trusting each other.

Imagine two very different kids on the same street:

• Sam (The United States): Sam believed everyone on the block should own their own toys, open lemonade stands to earn their own pocket money, and vote on what games to play at recess. This way of thinking is called capitalism and democracy.
• Leo (The Soviet Union): Leo believed no single kid should own the toys. Instead, he thought the neighborhood leader should collect all the toys, own all the lemonade stands, and hand out equal turns to everyone. This is called communism.

Leo started putting up tall fences around the houses near his side of the street, forcing those kids to live by his rules. Sam got scared that Leo wanted to take over the entire town. Meanwhile, Leo thought Sam was secretly plotting to destroy his house.

Because they were both so big and had dangerous fireworks, they knew a direct fistfight would destroy the whole neighborhood. So, instead of punching each other, they had a Cold War.

In their everyday lives, this meant:

• Whispering bad rumors about each other to other kids.


• Competing to see who could build the tallest treehouse or be the first to kick a soccer ball over the moon.


• Backing different younger kids in arguments on other playgrounds.


• Constantly buying bigger, scarier water balloons that they kept aimed at each other’s houses, just in case.