"Ideological differences played little part in the origin of the Cold War." How far do you agree with this judgment?
There are different historical interpretations to when the Cold War actually began - was it in 1918, when the West fought against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War? Was it at Potsdam in 1945, where disagreements between superpowers came about after the Second World War and no military alliance against Hitler was needed? Or was it in 1946 when Kennan introduced containment and Churchill declared the existence of an Iron Curtain between Eastern and Western Europe, within a month of each other? The origins of the Cold War can be argued for any of the above views, and thus is not definite; however, it is evident that ideology was an insignificant factor in all the above cases.
The Russian Civil War, where West faced off the Reds in direct military conflict, is an example of conflict due to ideology. Western beliefs in capitalism, democracy, and a free market economy were the complete opposite to communist ideology, which was about a one-party state where all was state-owned. A communist Russia would be a threat to the interests of the West. Although ideology was an important factor here, to say that this sole event was the origin of the Cold War would be ignoring significant events that occurred in following years.
In 1933, Roosevelt became president of the US and recognized the USSR. If ideology were so important, would the most prosperous capitalist country in the world acknowledge a communist Russia? When the US entered WWII in 1941, the two superpowers were allies - ideology was not a concern here; victory against fascism was.
Though it is true many problems resulted from the ambiguous agreements at Yalta, and along with change in leadership of two of the Big Three led to many disagreements at Potsdam, these were not related to ideology.
Reviews of: ""Ideological differences played little part in the origin of the Cold War." How far do you agree with this judgment?"
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The Cold War was a product of hatered. People often fear what they don't know. After nazi, Westerners saw USSR as the next possible threat. All the comotion about "communist threat" put fear in western minds and their actions forced the "Reds" to act the same. The Cold War abviosly started after the WWII.
P.S. If the Soviet constitution on 1932 would been followed as it was written, USSR would be more democratic than USA. However it was followed as interpreted by the General Secratary...
P.S.2- I gave you a smiley because it's still good.
History encompasses all. There are too many reasons that need to be considered to get the whole picture. Check my Origins and Manifestations of the Cold War essay.
Things you missed: Personalities of the leaders, presence of the Red Army in Eastern Europe and the subsequent conversion to communism, vacuum of power created by the decline of Europe (i.e. someone had to be the main power in the world, both USSR and US wanted to do this), the refusal of the Western powers in creating a Western Front during the war (Thereby, USSR had to fight Germany all on its own for three years leading to millions of casualties. This could have been easily prevented if the Americans and the British had rushed and attacked the Germans from the west after liberating France which they didn't for quite some while) et al.
Great points you mentioned, especially the true meaning of what history entails. I would ask you why Britain should have 'rushed in' to help the USSR though when the USSR signed its pact with Hitler voluntarily, raping Poland and the baltics while standing by and actively supporting Hitler as he bombed London when Britain stood alone.
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It's good... but needs work
This is a very interesting essay. I definitely liked it, but you could have explained the events that you speak of. Although I knew most of them, I didn't know them all, and so I got lost a couple of times. Also, you're a bit inconsistent. Why were we fighting the facists? It certainly wasn't because we disagreed with their ideaology. Facism is a very powerful and manipulative political system, facism, just like communism was a threat to the US and other world powers.
I gave this a smiley, because it's good, but like I said, it still needs work!
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