The Causes of the Cold War

The Causes Of The Cold War

The Cold War was a period of indirect conflict; no actual fighting breaks out between the Americans and Soviets, however, they compete with each other in every other field at the highest level of tension, no activity is too small to not call it a Cold War competition.

Ideologies

 belief systems of the two superpowers and their allies were opposite to each other: democracy and capitalism in comparison to central planning and communist dictatorship

 as a consequence these two ideologies competed with each other

 every activity is connected to proving one system is superior to the over

Nationalism

 intertwined with every activity, each side is extremely proud of their ideology and feel it is superior to their enemies

 patriotic speeches in favour of the ideology that wins the competition of the day e.g. sporting events, literature competitions, wars, the space race

Imperialism

 the control by one dominate nation over weaker nations

 Soviet Union was dominating factor in Eastern Europe

 dictatorship of communism allowed for total control in their sphere of influence

 same goes for Western Europe under American influence, although control not as obvious

Militarism

 concept of using military force to solve problems and being willing to go to war to promote a particular position

 Cold War was about making military power a prominent point in each superpower's influence  25% of each national budget was spent on weaponry during the Cold War (a huge sum of money)

 they emphasized relying on their military strength

 deterrence was a common objective; they wanted to put fear in the hearts of their potential enemies

Alliances

 Soviets created an alliance to promote and protect themselves which committed them to support communism and to resist the American sphere of influence during the Cold War

 the Americans surrounded the Soviet Union with their own alliances in an attempt to contain the Soviet sphere i.e. prevent them from expanding

 this alliance systems were a two edged sword which protected them, but also committed them to this struggle (p. 215 of Twentieth Century History)

Leader’s personalities

 some leaders during this time period simply made the situation more tense

 some personalities increased tension, others eased tensions (detente)

Stalin, 1927-53, Truman , 1945 - 53

 both despise each other and had strongly different ideologies

 very nature of their personalities heightened tension

Kennedy, 1961 - 63, Khrushchev, 1956 - 64

 both incompetent in some way and made a lot of mistakes which to the highest point of tension in the Cold War: the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

Reagan, 1981 - 89  hated and despised communism which ended up intensifying the Cold War

 own desire was to increase the number of American weapons to further deter the Soviet Union

 called the Soviet Union an "evil empire"

Gorbachev, 1985 - 91

 implemented policies of glasnost and perestroika

 in foreign relations, did a great deal to end the Cold War

 did this by making appeals to the leaders and working towards an arms reduction deal

 motivated by desire to redirect money spent on the unwinnable arms race to improving the poor economic conditions of the ordinary citizens