The United States and Soviet Union had many ideological differences. The Soviet Union was the birthplace of communism and a huge proponent of it. Communism and capitalism are direct opposites. This caused tension between the countries which eventually led to the culmination of the Cold War. It was an obvious fact that the Soviet Union wanted to expand the size of its empire.
These groups had different opinions on two specific aspects of the nuclear struggle and Strategic Defense Initiative. The first was the debatable level of the threat of the Soviet Union. The second was whether or not arms control was necessary. For many historians, the policies and processes caused the Soviet Union and the Cold War to come to their conclusions. This network of processes rather than the leading figures were the factors in creating the certain stages of the Cold War.
Tensions between the United States and Soviet Union began as both of them wanted to
Why Can’t We Be Friends?: The Rise of Tension between the US and USSR post-WWII Dating back to at least the start of communism, the world saw the gradual rise of the Cold War between the United States of America (USA) and the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). Although the Cold War was may have been inevitable because of these countries differing visions of economic policy, governmental systems, and the postwar world in general, it was during the years 1941-1949 when it became imminent. In this time, suspicion and tension between the Superpowers increased due to the battle between communism and capitalism, as well as their different governmental systems.
The Red Scare Analysis During the rise of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union had been brought into an alliance due to both of their desires to defeat Nazi, Germany. Although the Soviet Union’s aggressive, antidemocratic policy towards Europe created tensions even before World War II had ended. That being said, they tolerated each other as much as they could but weren’t exactly friends. The United States government was initially hostile to the Soviet leaders for their decision to take Russia out of World War I and was opposed to a state ideologically based on communism. The main conflict between them was their inability to agree about communism.
The fundamentals of the détente had too many contradictions to what was expected in the new relationship between the two. War had affected the détente policy between the U.S and the Soviet Union. In 1973 there was an agreement signed which included an agreement to prevent war, and it included measures to prevent nuclear war. Unfortunately the détente just wasn’t able to stop the hostility between the two super powers. They both continued to pursue goals and national interests at the cost of one another.
In WW2 the United States and the Soviet Union were allies. So what caused all this tension and rivalry between them in the first place? That eventually led to the Cold War. There were three main reasons that I believe were the stepping stones to this, difference in government, distrust and anger. At the time Russia was a Communist country meaning that no one owns land, or their own property, and instead of like the US where some people are more wealthy than others, everyone is at the same level.
However, the Russians and Americans fell on opposite sides of the political spectrum where Russians were pro-communists and Americans were pro-capitalists. This wasn't a problem until the U.S became the most dominant superpower. As the Americans began spreading their influence to neighboring countries the Soviet Union (Russians) wanted to do the same and spread their communist ways as well. This, however, threatened the Americans because they feared communist ways. They strongly disagreed with having a totalitarian regime and instead
The Cold War lasted decades and tensions continued to heightened. Trepidation spread among American citizens about the future of their country and world. Would communism take over or would the United States stand their ground and push for democracy? Following the Second World War, the Cold War caused the American people to fear the growth Communism, an economic depression, and a possible nuclear war, yet the Eisenhower Administration successfully addressed these concerns and implemented ways to reduce these fears. First and foremost, the American people feared that communism would spread and take over governments in other nations beyond the Kremlin.
After temporarily being allies in World War II, the US, and USSR strongly disagreed on many topics. These two world powers differed because the US had a democratic government, while the USSR had a communist government. The USSR wanted to spread its communist government to other
To examine the Cold War consensus, one must discuss the Cold War. The Cold war was the tension between the United States, standing for capitalism, and the USSR, standing for totalitarianism and socialism, following World War II. Although it was not a physical war between the two superpowers, many proxy wars had came out of it as way to spread or combat communism throughout the Free World. The Free World, as the U.S. came to define it, did not necessarily mean free as countries were being ruled by military regimes and dictatorships, but free from communism(70). During the Cold War, the spread of communism frighted the American People.
The cold war was fueled by ignorance. It seems extremely irrational that these two superpowers went to war over political beliefs seeing that currently full communism is a failure and capitalism is embracing certain communist beliefs. Communism was not a very bad idea as it promoted equality. Nonetheless, how communism
There are three competing theories of the causes of the Cold War; the traditional theory, the liberal theory, and the ideological theory. In all three theories lie causes that could have equally contributed to the conflict, but only one is more convincing than the others. The traditional theory says that communists were at fault for the conflict. Communists, specifically Stalin, wanted more control and thus used his political ideology as a means to achieve his desires. Expansionism is a commonly mentioned aspect related the idea of the traditional theory.
The second reason for why the superpower rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States can explain the absence of major wars is that ideological competition between them do not lead to direct confrontation between the two countries. Another way that the two superpowers compete after the second world war is by spreading their ideology to third world countries so as to increase their influence over the world. Before world war two, the Soviet Union and the United States are once allies to fight against government of Nazi Germany. However, after the collapse of Germany, the two superpowers have different opinions on how the Europe should be reconstructed. The United States is in favour of democracy while the Soviet Union is in support
"The Cold War was an ideological contest between the western democracies especially the United States and the Communist countries that emerged after the Second World War" (Tindall 972). The United States and the Soviet Union had differences over issues such as human rights, individual liberties, economic freedom, and religious belief. "Mutal suspicion and a race to gain influence and control over the so called nonaligned or third world countries further polarized" (Tindall 945). After the WWII Soviets dominate European countries and thought the U.S. had the same motives.
