However, you shouldn't make the assumption that devotion to ideology was all that was behind Cold War animosity; countries tend to be more complaint trading partners with countries that share their political systems and both Stalin and the Cold War Era presidents in the US knew this. The tension eventually built, but no one wanted to go to actual war again after the colossal massacre of WWII, hence the term Cold War. 2. Describe and explain the ideological differences between the United Stated and the Soviet Union. In 1917, Russia became a communist country with an agenda of converting the world to communism.
After the second world war, the Soviet Union occupied several countries in eastern Europe by not allowing them to have free elections. By doing that they created a buffer zone in order to protect their ideology. The government of America saw it as a violation of their pledge and the possible spread of the disliked ideology all over the world. This motivated the States to put their energy into an arms race and to be ready for a Soviet invasion, which actually never happened because this might not even have been the goal of the Soviet Union. In his work, Fleming explained that if the Soviets wanted to attack the united states of America they had done it because they had all the necessary equipment but at that period the nation was more interested in its inner politics than conquering the world.
Communism was a major unifying force after WW2. Discuss Russia’s spread of its communist regime throughout Europe led to it being a major unifying force but also the opposite. It created a union of states between other communist countries but also a fear within Western Europe. The spread of communism in Europe also affected the USA cause it to set up many organisations such as NATO and the Marshall plan to fight it. Although it unified, it also brought about separation, with the division of Germany and of Berlin.
The Cold War Between 1945 and 1989, the Soviet Union was in conflict with the United States of America, although the conflict never came to open warfare. Even though both sides wanted to undermine and destroy each other, if it came to open warfare both countries would have been destroyed by the use of their nuclear weapons. The USA “battled for non-communist, capitalist regimes” whereas the USSR was very much a communist dictatorship, however they had one thing in common; both sides believed that they held the key to the future happiness of the human race. There were many causes to the Cold War, although the Potsdam Conference in 1945 was the most influential. In February 1945, the Yalta Conference was held.
Soviet and US relations changed dramatically between 1945 and 1947, there were many reasons to explain why and how this happened. Firstly, one reason was the end of WW2. During the Second World War, America and the USSR were members of the Grand Alliance in order to oppose Hitler, but when this war finished there was nothing to bring the Communists and Capitalists together. Therefore, the two countries went from allies to progressing enemies after Germany was defeated. This developed until a confrontation, from Western and Eastern Europe, in a nuclear arms race.
The United States and the Soviet Union had the most powerful military forces. The Cold War got its name because neither the United States nor the Soviet Union wanted to openly fight each other and they were afraid of each other’s power. Communism came to the Soviet Union in 1918. The United States didn’t trust the communist. Communism’s goal was to bring down capitalism in any way possible.
Primary Causes Of The Cold War The conflict between the US and the formerly known USSR occurred because of several political conflicts. Both the US and the U.S.S.R. felt that their ideology was better and because of World War 2, pre-existing strife had built up. The major ideological difference was that the U.S.S.R. was supporting communism, whilst the US was supporting capitalism. With the actions of the soviet union, helping to liberate the defeated countries, it was understood that the liberators may stay and help them install their form of government and leave. Fear of the other country laying influence of their ideology, as a means to gain power, tensions rose.
From 1917 to 1980, their relationship shifts from good relationship to bad relationship that almost led to nuclear war, which was fallowed again with a good relationship that led to arms control and détente, then to an intensified relationship until the end of the cold war. IA. It is important to know the background that strained the relationship of the Americans and the Soviets by understanding the period 1917 to 1945. It is not at this span of time that the nuclear arms race started but rather this period marked the beginning of the ideological clash between the Americans and the Soviets. The overthrowing of the Tsarist Empire in 1917 led to the creation of the Soviet Union, marking the expansion of communism in Europe.
Though this treat he was able to have his way at the Yalta conference. Truman thought of America as the World’s atomic power and was assured by Cabinet advisers; America would reign supreme in the arms race. However Joseph Stalin was also attempting to build Russia’s power in this arms race too. Truman began to get tough on Russia in 1946 when there were strong protests in the Iran against Russian Troops. The Soviets had denied sharing control of the Turkish Straits as they had claimed they would not have.
Though the need to defeat the Germans had made USSR a partner in the Allied forces from 1941 onwards, Stalin had displayed the tendency that he wanted to dominate the world, and he used dictatorial powers and military powers towards people of his own country as well as others. Even during the Yalta Conference of 1945 towards the end of World War II, which suggested the high point of wartime unity and goodwill between the Allies and the Soviet Union, Stalin showed his determined to control the countries in Eastern Europe. Thus, under the outward display of unity some elements of distrust between USSR and other allied countries already existed. This disharmony between them came to surface when, after the war ended, Stalin of USSR refused to honor the Declaration on Liberated Europe, in which the Allies promised to hold democratic elections in the European countries liberated from war. After the war, USSR cut off almost all contacts between the West and the territories it controlled in Eastern Europe.