How far do you agree with the view that the origins of the Cold War in 1945-46 owed much to ideological differences and little to the personalities of the leaders and conflicting national interests?

 Ideological differences were seen to cause tension as Communism and Capitalism and one of these differences was the economic policies of each ideology. A capitalist society such as that in the USA, was seen as ‘divided’ by communists, as their economy was based on private ownership and their was an emphasis on the individual whereas the communists in the USSR had a society based on nationalisation which enables the fair distribution of goods as well as state ownership of companies. This was a cause of tension leading up to the Cold War as the wealthy businessmen of the West, most of which were in high powered governmental or political positions, saw nationalism as a direct threat towards their wealth, power and status, so was an attack on the power structure of US society. As these figures were powerful, they had the potential to influence major decisions within the US government, so it can be said that the origins of the Cold War owed much to economic ideological differences.   As well as this, political ideological disparities had a great amount of potential to increase tension between the opposing sides because the governmental structures of communism and capitalism were very distinctive. The west saw itself as upholding “liberal democracy” and as such had a government based on many freedoms such as the freedom of speech and freedom to vote, so their was a choice of government whereas the government in the USSR was a one party system, aiming to create a classless society in the interests of ruling on behalf of the people. These different systems caused tension as the US and other western capitalist governments began to assume that communism was a direct threat to the freedoms of western society, and therefore, it was something to be feared. Therefore it can be implicit that the sharp contrast of political organisations in each the US and the USSR was a cause of tensions that led up to the cold war, as each side saw the other as a threat to their way of living.  Another contributing factor to the Cold War origins was the conflict of Wilsonian Liberalism and Lenin/Marxist principles. Wilson’s ideas were based on American values of personal and economic freedom and the USA had a ‘moral duty’ to spread these values to the rest of the globe whereas Lenin’s concept was of a world revolution. These represented differing models for the conduct of international relations and the seeds of the future conflict were planted in the hostility generated between these two conflicting views, which guided foreign policy for the USA, and the USSR for years up to and after 1945-46. When under the circumstances that would allow these two competing views to be executed, it was likely that conflict would ensue, as it did, in the form of a Cold War between the two powers.  However, it is the inherent hostility that divided the USSR and the US, which was an issue of conflicting National interests, which contributed to the origins of the Cold War in 1945-46, though the hostility far preceded these dates, but was an on-going factor. At it’s very base, communist ideologies state that ‘conflict between communism and capitalism was inevitable’, although this can be seen as a contributing factor, the policy of “Comintern” within the Soviet Union - which continued beyond 1945-46 through policies of propaganda and other outlets. This was the constant undermining of capitalism at all costs in the hope of aiding the ‘inevitable fall of capitalism’ (Marxist principles). It is for this reason that the hostility owed much to the origins of the cold war, because Capitalist and Communist countries had the potential to work side by side  (as they did with the common enemy of the fascists in World War 2) but the conflict of national interest in terms of how best they thought to lead their country was a key contribution of tension between the two countries. It can be argued however that this was a difference of ideology rather than a conflict of national interests, this is because it was the ideological principles themselves which set foot the idea that capitalism will fall and communism will rise, however the Comintern was an organisation set up by the USSR to put the ideology into place. It can therefore be argued that although this was a conflicting national interest, without the communist ideological hostility towards the west, the Comintern may never have come to fruition, and therefore the ideological foundations of communism was the base of the fire from which the Cold War burned.