Social causes: I think that the Cold War was caused a lot by fear. People were afraid of the spread of Communism because they basically tweaked out and yelled "Conspiracy!". They thought everyone who was Communist was anti-Democracy and anti-United States. Coming off of two World Wars, this fear was at least partly founded in logic. In the past it had seemed like countries of similar ideologies were more likey to become allies. This fear led to conflicts and interference in situations taht probably otherwise would not have merited very much attention.
Economic: Economics were definitely a contributor to the Cold War because economics is primarily what defined a country as Democratic or Communist. Impoverished countries mostly became communist, as ideas of equality appealed to the general population. Democratic countries were usually those for which the free trade and capitalist systems were working and needed little interference from a Communist dictator.
Political: In my opinion, political causes were the most significant of the causes of the Cold War. Communist countries set up the Warsaw Pact to unite Communist powers and defend themselves, and opposingly, the Democratic powers set up NATO. As seen previously in World War 1 and 2, establishing alliances served to increase paranoia and tension. These alliances also led to more competition over the undecided countries in Asia and South America. Because of the competitition between the two factions, political leaders became more and more dedicated to besting each other in all areas. The invention of the atomic bomb at the end of World War 2, the Space Race, these things are examples of how dedicated Stalin and Truman, as well as consecutive U.S. presidents were, to topping each other.
I don't think the blame can be assigned to either the United States or the Soviet Union exclusively. In certain instances, such as the Bay of Pigs, I think the United States seems like a bit more of an antagonist. However, Stalin did point missiles at us. So that wasn't cool either. Both countries just got a little too carried away in that trite old "world domination" bit and let their paranoia get the best of them.
7 comments:
It's interesting how easy it is to loop social and political causes together for this, I think its why I was having a hard time trying to separate them. You're blog helps to define them :)
You changed my mind, now I agree that political reasons were most important in causing the Cold War :)
I agree with you that the blame can't really be placed on either the US or the USSR excllusively, but I think that makes it both of their faults, because, as you said, they both had their moments of pride, angst to dominate and most of all paranoia. But while I see your point about politics being the primary cause, didn't you say that it was ultimately economic philosophy that determined politics? I don't know, just some food for thought:)
Good job Kaitlyn. I enjoy your wit and charm.
I can agree that both the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs were definitly not exactly what the world needed for peace. I liked how you put things.
You should probably be a journalist. You write well under pressure. That aside, I agree with you on pretty much everything. No one country is to blame, they both can share equal blame. And people were afraid of communism. That was big. But the political causes were important too. Those darn politics.
I liked what you said about economics being what primarily made a communist of democratic government. I also agree with you about the importance of political causes, you're making me think they might be the most significant after all.
I agree that fear was a major cause of the Cold War. The people of the U.S. were paralyzed by thoughts of a Red force that would oppress them. Political leaders like Mccarthy used this fear to their advantage, and continued to nurture and feed the flames.
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