To what extent did ideological differences cause the outbreak of Cold War?
The outbreak of Cold War was caused by ideological differences. United States of
America (USA) and Soviet Union (USSR) both had very different ideologies with USA using
democracy while USSR followed communism. Under a communist rule, USSR had only one
political party which controlled all aspects of the government. The people had no choice but
to accept the policies implemented. Capitalist on the other hand, had a democratic
government that gave the people their “voice” by allowing them to vote for what they
wanted. USA feared that communism would take over the entire world, just like how USSR
took over Eastern Europe. USA also feared communism because USSR had plans to expand
and take over the entire world. These intentions of USSR were found out by George Kennan
who sent the Long Telegram that stated USSR’s expansionist intentions and suggested
implementing a “Containment Policy”. This difference in ideologies caused both countries to
wanted to
Mutual distrust between the two countries was another reason why the Cold War was
started. Both countries always had their suspicions about the other, dating back all the way to
when Communism first took over USSR in 1917. This created fear in the West because they
were afraid that Communism would be a threat to their democratic government. Mutual
distrust was continuously built across different events such as USSR’s fear of the USA’s
atomic bomb. USSR was not informed by USA that they would be using the atomic bomb in
Nagasaki and Hiroshima, causing USSR to be wary about USA’s intentions of using the
atomic bomb. This led to a deadly arms race which both countries aimed to create the most
powerful bomb. Stalin’s insecurities about USA led to create satellite states, which eventually
formed an iron curtain that acted as a buffer zone should USSR come under attack from the
West. This attempt at enhancing security was seen as expansionistic from the USA’s point of
view which the USA retaliated by introducing the “Containment Policy” that aimed to
contain USSR’s communist expansionistic plans. This mutual distrust between the two
countries continued to drive a wedge between the two countries which resulted in more
hostile relations to continue.
The Cold War was also caused by the breakdown of wartime alliances between USA
and USSR. During World War 2, USA and USSR were alliances as they both fought against
the same enemy: Germany. Before the war, USA’s suspicions grew when USSR agreed to
sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Germany. Prior to that, USSR was also not invited to attend
the Munich Agreement. That already caused already strained tensions to be weakened even
more. Furthermore, during the war, Stalin felt that Western powers were delaying invading
France, causing USSR to lose a lot of resources and men. USSR also agreed with USA that
they would enter the Asia-Pacific War no more than 3 months after the European War ended.
In return for this, USA would grant special territorial concessions for USSR. However, when
USSR entered the war against Japan, USA was in the midst of dropping 2 atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, rendering USSR’s aid useless. Hence, from Truman’s perspective,
USSR had no rights to collect their “reward” because they did not contribute to the war
against Japan. However, Stalin still wanted to collect his “reward” for joining the war. This
caused much stronger tensions between the 2 superpowers then eventually led to the start of
the Cold War because their “alliance” had been destroyed.
In conclusion, the Cold War was caused not only because of different ideologies but
also because of mutual distrust and breakdown of wartime alliance alike. Among the three
factors, mutual distrust between USA and USSR contributed to starting the Cold War the
most because without this mutual distrust, USA and USSR would not become increasingly
suspicious of each other that created the strained tensions between them.