Both the United States and the Soviet Union tried to use tactics to scare the other into backing down or giving the other their weapons. The Cold War was scary because of the threat of nuclear weapons and the threat of the Soviet Union winning and bringing back communism (Rothney & Findley,2011). This lasted 40 years because there is nothing scarier to the human brain than the thought that the enemy might drop nuclear bombs in your sleep and bomb you, and that's what the Cold War was all about