Good Morning Joey,

You are correct, it is a tricky subject.

After the WWII, it became clear that 2 superpowers emerged and for the first time in history (because of new technologies), the planet was too small to support both superpowers.

Both countries (US and USSR) immediately started recruiting countries to their way of thinking by creating vast alliances and spheres of influences. The fact of the matter is, both countries were so fundamentally different that they could not stand each other.

As they both tried to convince the world that their way of thinking was best (communism / capitalism) they started to make decisions that would allow them to convince others (and themselves) that they had the winning formula.

I would suggest that you go study the space race, as it offers an excellent example of this concept.