General MacArthur told them so in the Pacific theater. World War II, like World War I, was fought for industrial and commercial reasons. Now we are well on the read to World War III, with atomic warfare a virtual certainty. The truth is that U.S. capitalism is confronted with the alternative of capturing new, and extending present, foreign markets, or facing a serious, possibly fatal, economic crisis at home, with an inevitably disastrous effect on Western capitalism generally. Russia's rulers are likewise confronted with the problem of enlarging their economic control of the world and its resources, or facing serious trouble at home, and in countries under its control.
Conflict is inevitable.
This was made quite clear by Thurman Arnold, former United States Assistant Attorney General. Our production system has gotten ahead of our ability to distribute goods. The cause of modern war is to be found in economic rivalries. In the present case the rivalries arise out of the imperialist struggle between U.S. capitalism and Russian State despotism. This is a desperate struggle in which desperate rulers will resort to desperate means.