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.
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.
Anti-Communism and McCarthyism In the 1940s and early 1950s following World War II the communist Soviet Union was aggressively expanding. This expansion created a threat to America, and the beliefs it was built upon. The fear of communist expansion and control created an anti-communist movement throughout the American government and its people. Anti-communism did not just create foreign concerns but also domestic concerns in the public and government. Truman in the late 1940s, started to introduce doctrines that moved for the “containment” of communist expansion and influence in Europe.
After the Second World War, the nations that were still standing strong were the United States of America and The Soviet Union. The domination of these two countries in the second half of the 20th century is known as the time of the Cold War, the diplomatic, geopolitical, and ideological clash of interests, also known as the rivalry between the capitalist democracy ( The United States of America) and the Marxist-Leninist communism ( The Soviet Union), which resulted in several proxy wars, but not with an actual war between these two superpowers ( Palmer 2014: 887).The distrust towards the U.S.S.R government was enormous and as a result to this, the State Department of the United States formulated the containment policy which would prevent the
The Red Scare was a period in which many Americans feared that communism would thrive, and the capitalist system in the United States would be threatened. (1947-1957) 2. This was a fragile time for Americans, having just ended one war, and then thrusting into a new one. The fear of Communism has always somewhat paralyzed Americans, except this second Red Scare was particularly fueled by Senator Joseph McCarthy. B. McCarthy’s reasons for his accusations were that he had proof that citizens of the U.S. were in fact members of the Communist party.
Discuss the Impact of the Cold War on Australian Society in the 1950’s and 1960’s During the Cold War Era, Australian society was profoundly affected due to our involvement as a loyal ally to both America and Great Britain. As a result, a fear of communism in and around Australia developed and lead to a lot of tension around the country. As countries in both Europe and Asia were taken over by communist powers, the threat of communism became a genuine fear within Australian society. Many Australians were concerned that with communism spreading rapidly throughout the world, it would not be long before Australia would undergo the same fate. As if to reinforce the fear of communism, two spies working on behalf of the Soviet Embassy were discovered in an event known as the Petrov Affair and reignited the fear of communism which became stronger than ever before.
In the period directly following Soviet liberation of Nazi-held Eastern Europe, it became evident of the Russian desire to dominate that very region. The reasons for this are manifold, but one of the most significant reasons was a desire to ensure the USSR’s security. Russia had repeatedly been attacked through Eastern Europe (and most specifically Poland), from the time of Napoleon to Hitler not 4 years ago. With America and its allies building up force in Western Europe, Stalin was bound to be suspicious of the capitalist powers, even more so considering the increasing level of anti-communist demagoguery in America. Having a series of puppet states in Eastern Europe would give the metropole invaluable security, ensuring that the states which bordered it were friendly and would support it in a theoretical invasion.
America would aid any country threatened by communism. For example, the US provided economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey as their governments were fighting against communism in their own countries. Truman believed that weak states like these were highly susceptible to a communist takeover. The Truman Doctrine also provided the basis of the Domino Theory, which states that if the US does not stop the spread of communism, countries would fall under communism one after another, just like dominoes creating a toppling chain. Agreeing with Truman's sentiments, the American Congress voted $400 million dollars of aid to Greece and Turkey.
And most importantly, the economy of the Soviet Union was in ruins after the U.S.S.R had chose to spend massive amounts of money on wars and the arms race. The world saw many of the U.S.S.R's failures in Afghanistan and took immediate advantage of it. Although there could be many reasons behind the U.S.S.R invading Afghanistan, it was officially to support the government of Afghanistan against the Islamic Mujahideen Resistance. The Mujahideen were being supported by the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, and the Pakistan government and obviously the U.S.S.R would be conflicted. When the war started off, U.S.S.R didn't expect it to be a decade-long war.
The origins of the cold war are not really that difficult to uncover. Nor are these origins that complex. Here in the west we have the tendency -- not unusual, I suppose -- to place the entire responsibility of the cold war upon the shoulders of the Soviet Union. And so, there have been a few events which have shaped this response. For instance, when Mother Russia overthrew its tsar, made a revolution, became the Soviet Union, unified itself under Lenin and created an ideological structure called communism, the United States could only react with fear and trepidation.