Were USA and USSR ready to superpowers right after WW2?

Answer 1

Most of the rest of the world lay in ruins after World War II, including the Soviet Union.

America escaped relatively unscathed, except for Pearl Harbor and some minor incidents in the northwest involving Japanese explosives delivered by balloons.

The Soviets were mostly destroyed, but came back with a lot of hard work, as it turned out, developing a superpower-level military, having achieved that status mostly by building a large number of nukes. But they never really achieved the other measures of power in economics, politics, and culture. Some now call the Cold War-era Soviet Union a Third World country with nukes.

America was by all definitions a full-fledge superpower, military definitely included. After the Soviet Union fell apart, America became by default the world's superpower.

Some say China, India, Japan, a re-emerging Russia, and the European Union threaten American world hegemony. I don't buy it. If anything, we Americans are increasing our lead in the various measures of power over time.

Answer 2

Yes, by 1949 the USSR and USA possessed the ability to employ the Atomic-bomb- and they were the only two nations in the world with that destructive capability.

Important Soviet nuclear tests

Joe One, the first Soviet atomic test.
First Lightning
The first Soviet atomic test was First Lightning (Первая молния) August 29, 1949, and was code-named by the Americans as Joe 1. It was a replica of the American Fat Man bomb whose design the Soviets knew from espionage.

The first (not "true") Soviet hydrogen ("Super") test, dubbed "Joe 4".
Joe Four
The first Soviet test of a hydrogen bomb was on August 12, 1953 and was nicknamed Joe 4 by the Americans; it was not a "true" fusion bomb (it was more like a "boosted" fission bomb than a staged thermonuclear device, and had a yield comparable to large fission weapons; around 90% of its yield was directly or indirectly from fission).

SOURCE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_atomic_bomb_project

Answer 3

"The term in its current political meaning was coined in the book "The Superpowers: The United States, Britain and the Soviet Union – Their Responsibility for Peace" (1944), written by William T.R. Fox, an American foreign policy professor."

"Superpower : Origin" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superpower#Origin

Answer 4

No, It took mabey 2 to 3 years to get into the cold war.