I think that the Cold War was a result of different ideological ideals between the United States and the Soviet Union, which caused the two to be rooted against each other, even when they were working together. The ideological differences later amounted to political difference because both countries rejected each other because of "opposing" economic and political systems, communism vs. capitalism/democracy.
The earliest evidence of the Cold War tensions was with the emergence of Marxism later the United States reaction to the Russian Revolution. I believe that these tensions existed long before the second world war, but I believe that both world wars proved to intensify these tensions, especially because the United States was forced to align itself with the Soviet Union in order to defeat Nazi Germany. Post WWII actions such as the United States suspension of the Lend Lease act, and certain parts of the Marshall Plan did little to help solve tensions, these post war plans would not allow Soviets to rebuild with American money, which angered Soviets. Then a sort of unspoken race to spread each ideology in order to prevent isolationism and create influence in a fragil post war world. Overal I would have to say that the cause of the the Cold War was the rejection of ideologies, which was intensified when neither country chose to reconcile.
I think that the difference in ideologies aggravated the international security fears of the two countries. The US was afraid that the communist governments would destroy the access to the open markets of Asia and Europe. The USSR was afraid that the capitalist, democratic governments would result in the attempt to invade Russia again. So overall, I think that the differences in ideologies were what made the fears more intense and caused tensions between the two super powers. If the two countries didn't have international security fears, the difference in ideologies probably wouldn't have caused the Cold War. If the nations weren't insecure about their positions in the world then the different ideologies could have possibly coexisted. It was the fear of one side that the other ideology would dominate it and take over.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you, all other causes of the war stemmed from ideological differences, no matter what if both countries kept their beliefs it would be nearly impossible to not argue and compete.
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