Preview

Why Was The Cold War Inevitable

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1282 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why Was The Cold War Inevitable
The Cold War The Cold War, which occurred from 1947 to 1991, was a time of considerable political tension and competition. The cause of the Cold War has long been a discussion without a singular conclusion. While the exact cause of the war is not universally acknowledged, there were many factors that contributed to its development. Due to the overall distrust between the two superpowers, their conflict of ideologies, and the fear that that was created because of these, the period of conflict and tension between the United States and the Soviet Union known as the Cold War became inevitable. One of the main reasons for the Cold War was because of the distrust between the U.S. and USSR. This distrust was mainly formed from relations between the two nations during and after World War II. There were many events …show more content…
and the Soviet Union. The main conflicting ideology was the U.S. belief of Democracy, and the Soviet belief of Communism. Democracy and Communism, which are both political ideologies, directly contradict each other. Democracy, the U.S.’s system of government, calls for a government where the people have the power. Communism, on the other hand, calls for the government to have control of all means of production. Communism was meant to promote equal opportunity for all. However, the U.S. did not believe that that was what communism was doing. Instead, the U.S. despised communism, and tried to prevent the spread of communism. Another conflicting ideology was the American belief of Capitalism. Capitalism means that the people can control means of production. This also completely contradicts the Soviet belief that the government should own industry and business. Also, the USSR was totalitarian (History.com). This means that the government would have dictatorial power in many ways. This was one thing the U.S. completely opposed, and did not want to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Cold War described the relationship between the US and the Soviet Union and began shortly after World War II and was mainly caused by the differing views of capitalism vs. communism and a distrust the two countries had for each other. A big reason for the distrust was because the Soviets had developed atomic bombs. Bombs kept by both countries kept each other on edge. The cold war lasted roughly 45 years beginning in 1945 and ending in 1991 after the falling of the berlin…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The events that led up to the Cold War shows that the Soviet Union, not the United States, was responsible for the development of the Cold War. There were many ideological differences between the two superpowers. The Soviet Union wanted a weak Germany and a communist government. The United States and there allies wanted a democratic government and a strong Germany. The United States was also worried over the Soviet spreading communism throughout Europe. The Soviet Union wanted to produce a world dominated by communism and the USSR. America felt aggressions towards the Soviet for this. These events led to the development of the Cold War.…

    • 518 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Cold War resulted after the end of WWII, when two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, began to generate a rivalry due to an excess of competition regarding power, that was then transformed into a long period of tension. It is called the Cold War because, indeed, such conflict never caused an actual war, however, multiple battles actually…

    • 1652 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    This was also the same time that communism and democracy began to bump heads. The US stood firmly on the side of democracy while the USSR stood for communism. The US believed that communism would eventually cause the same problems that Fascism did. The US wanted to contain communism to them. The threat of it spreading to other countries and eventually to the US became a fear for many Americans. It also brought about a fear that the enemy was not…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Cold War took place between the USA and the USSR. Many arguments had to do with capitalism vs. communism. Both were longing to have expansion and most importantly power. They had no trust between each other, but they both had advantages in case the war became violent. The USSR had a vast army, while the USA had an atomic bomb (TheHistoryLearningSite 1-2).…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Cold War took off after the end of the Second World War when the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the two global dominant superpowers each grasping ideologies that were dichotomous from each other. This adverse relationship continued for half a century and the clash of two distinct and differing political ideologies of communism and capitalism saw no clear conclusion or victory for either side. The tense atmosphere resonated not only in the United States and the Soviet Union, but also around the world and into space. For most of the fifty years of the cold war, the ideological struggle and the many indirect physical conflicts between the West and the Soviet Union were in a deadlock with no visible success of either side. However,…

    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Cold War was a hostile rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted for 45 years. This war began at the end of World War II with the collapse of the Soviet Union. This war is described as “a war of words and ideas”. The United States and the Soviet Union clashed over their political and economic differences. The United States approved of a democratic government and capitalistic economy while the Soviet Union approved of a communist state.…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cold War Dbq

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Cold War was a shocking and controversial event, which is still being discussed today. It is necessary to search the many reasons why it started and how. While the ’why’ or ‘what happened’ is still being argued out over time the ’what’ is very clear. One of the main reasons of the Cold War was that there were huge differences in the way that the East and West were led and as many know disagreements usually lead to conflict.…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The wartime alliance forged by the U.S, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union crumbled, giving the birth to a cold war. The Cold War began because there were different visions of the postwar world. The Soviet Union were trying to gain power and their communism was feared by the United Stated and American citizens. During the 1950s, economic productivity increased abundantly. The Cold War shaped the ideals about family life in America, especially the lives of women.…

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Cold War is a global political, economical and ideological confrontation between the Soviet Union and the US, which lasted from 1945 to 1980. Centralized and autocratically governmented Russia contrasted with the democratic United States which wanted to share with the rest of the world its liberty and equality conception. Since both parties were eager to avoid open conflict, the war was conducted with the help of economic competition, political and military threats, intelligence and subversions.…

    • 243 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Cold War was by chance the most stressful part of the World’s history than anything else because it stretched across the entire globe and affected every country in one way or another. There are several reasons that the Cold War began and several different points that can be described as the beginning of the Cold War. By far the most influential part of the Cold War was the distrust that Joseph Stalin had between Winston Churchill and Harry Truman. The hostile relationship between the countries began when the Soviet Union would not open invade the Eastern part of Europe pushing Germany back and helping out the rest of the allies (Crash Course #39). The Cold War was a time that no one wanted to blink because they were afraid they might miss something important.…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Cold War happened between the years of 1945 and 1991, it was a time of military, political, and economic tension between the Soviet Union and the United States. Just after the second World War had ended, complications came up around the area of international power, who would gain more power and who would lose power. The main thing the Soviet Union attempted to do during this shifting of power was they tried to gain more territory in order to solidify their spot as a world wide power, while the United States attempted to limit the territory gained by the Soviet Union. The multitude of ideological differences separated the two countries as well, especially in the years coming after the second World War, during that time the American government…

    • 1576 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cold War Containment

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Cold War was around a decade long struggle for the United States and the Soviet Union. The cause of this war was to stop anymore communism, or so that was the party line from the President Harry Truman. Although some argue on when the war began it is said to have started around late 1945, when the relationship between Moscow and Washington was at its lowest point. This war was the first thing of its kind, and often was…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cold War

    • 623 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Cold War began over a period of several years following World War II as a result of increasing political and ideological tensions between the USSR and the USA; the weapons used were political and technological, in that many different types of strategies were utilized. Speeches given by world leaders provide evidence of the escalation of tensions between the two countries. The arms race played a major part in the Cold War, but other factors contributed to the struggle for power.…

    • 623 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Was the Cold War Inevitable

    • 2933 Words
    • 12 Pages

    The orthodox view of the Cold War elucidates its inevitability due to the great ideological differences that existed between the Soviet Union and United States. On the other hand, the revisionists argued that it happened due to the actions that Soviets took and the consequential responses made by the United States as a result of their inflexible, single-sided interpretations of Soviet action. Yet, even with the backdrop of the early Bolshevik conflict in 1918 as well as the great ideological gulf between the Soviet Union and United states, the cold war could have been avoided in its initial stages under President Roosevelt. However, what really determined it was the series of events that occurred after Roosevelt was succeeded by Truman. The inevitability of the Cold War, at its roots, was due to Soviet aggression and attitudes felt by the United States which was exacerbated from the post war climate of the time. To be precise, it was a combination of the subsequent events that followed Truman’s accession that sealed the unavoidability of the Cold War. American diplomatic policies were dictated by their fears of communism as well as opportunities that arise from modern warfare which aided in the evolution of American foreign policies. In the end, the Cold War was inevitable as a result of the conflict of interest between nations, whether it be the ideological gulf between communism and capitalism or the determining the political future of Eastern Europe, which was ultimately fuelled by the unstable post World War II environment.…

    • 2933 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays