"To what extent was the cold war caused by two irreconcilable ideologies?"

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“To What Extent Was the Cold War Caused By Two Irreconcilable Ideologies?”

        

        

         The Russian-American history is not very old, yet it was started off on a bad note in the Russian Revolution. Communism, which draws its power from the lower classes, stands in direct opposition to Capitalism which necessitates the satisfaction of the upper classes in order to be successful. However, history forced the two ideologically conflicting countries to work together to secure peace, and lay their differences aside -for the time being. As World War Two was coming to an end, Russia and the U.S both wanted to shape the European situation after their respective ideologies. This essay will examine to which extent the irreconcilability of these two ideologies was the cause of the Cold War.

        The first time, the U.S intervened in Russian affairs actively, was in the Russian Revolution, they fought against communism, on the side of the “White Army”. The victorious army however, turned out to be the Communist Red Army. So clearly, Russia and America were off to a bad start. As much as their ideologies may be contradictory, in World War One Americans and Russians fought side by side, forgetting disagreements became easy, when their was a common enemy. After World War One, when Russia expanded its territories, taking the land it thought would do better under the hands of communism, America became very aware of this eastern giant again. The U.S seemed to not like the idea of another rising power, especially one that “sailed under communist flag”.

        Divergence between the countries grew even further, when Russia signed the “Non-Aggression Pact” with Germany in 1939.  When this pact was broken however in 1942, and Hitler invaded Russia, there was no other opportunity but to join the allies, and again fight the common threat. The U.S actively kept out of the war for even longer though, because they did not want to “intervene in European affairs”. When the U.S finally did enter, on D-Day (June 6th 1944) they provided the long longed for “Second Front”, to divide the German force, which was pounding on Russia. Now, the U.S and Russia were fighting a common enemy again, and discrepancies were put aside again –at least for the moment.

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        With World War Two coming to an end however, when there was no common enemy anymore, but suddenly a “power-vacuum” to fill up, the opposing doctrines of both countries became quite clear again. This was firstly the case at the Yalta conference (February 1945). This conference is also sometimes regarded as the establishment of the Cold War, because here for the first time the incompatibility of the American and Russian “ideals” became clear. Now, where Russia and America not simply had to fight a common enemy, and work together militarily, but suddenly also work together politically and economically problems suddenly ...

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