The Cold War was a geographical tension between the Americans and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) after World War II. It was because of ideological struggle between communist nations and capitalism. During the World War II, the Americans and the Soviet Union joined together to fight Axis powers but later the relationship between the two nations created tension. The Americans were concerned about Soviet tyrannical leadership by Joseph Stalin (Shaw, Youngblood, and Cinematic Cold War). After the Soviet Union dissolution and the collapse of Berlin Wall, Cold War rebuilt the world. There are many factors behind the eruption of the Cold War in the late 1940s. They include fear of communist attack by Americans, USSR’s distress of atomic bomb, ideological differences between Stalin and Truman among other factors as discussed in subsequent paragraphs.
One of the factors to the Cold War was the American Fear of Communist Attack. Communism is a political, economic and social ideology where people are supposed to be equal in a community. Under a true communism system, there are no social classes as individual receive the same quantity and quality of resources. After World War I, the Americans were living in fear of communism. Russia in 1917 went through Bolshevik Revolution by establishing a communism government and withdrawing from war. The Americans feared that communism from Soviet Union would spread all over the world (Draper, American Communism and Soviet Russia).
The Americans believed communism would be a threat to its democratic values. The state and the federal government reacted by attacking possible communist treats. Laws were established to prosecute people involved in criminal activities revolving around political change. After World War II when Cold War was declared between the US and USSR, American feared that communism will be spread by Soviet Unions as it was occupying largest part of Central and Easter Europe to bring down capitalism and democratic government.
The second factor was the USSR’s distress of American’s atomic bomb. The United States was the first nation to build atomic weaponry after the World War II. The US made an atomic bomb, which was dropped in Hiroshima city Japan to mark the end of war. This action resulted to outbreak of Cold Car. Although President Truman’s decision in using atomic bomb was to end the war with Japan, it was also used to threaten the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union were distress of American atomic bomb as they did not have the technology on building bombs (Skoll, American Imperialism and the Fear Culture pg. 47- 69).
The third factor was in ideological differences between Stalin and Truman. The attitude between the two superpowers in their ideological difference led to the Cold War outbreak in the late 1940s. The American administration was based on democracy where leaders were chosen through elections. Their main aim was to protect the economic system, which was the source of capitalism. However, the Russian ideology was based on communism where society properties were valued before people interest. Stalin developed Communism to control all resources in the country (Majkowski 23-32).
In conclusion, the USSR’s communism economy was a major threat to American capitalist system. Truman was against communism as dictator leaders would have control over Europe. All these and among other factors led to the Cold War.
- Draper, T. (2017). American Communism and Soviet Russia. Routledge.
- Majkowski, J. (2017). How successful was Joseph Stalin in establishing Soviet Union as a superpower. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 7(1), 23-31.
- Shaw, T., & Youngblood, D. J. (2014). Cinematic Cold War: The American and Soviet struggle for hearts and minds. University Press of Kansas.
- Skoll, G. R. (2016). American Imperialism and the Fear Culture: Four Wars. In Globalization of American Fear Culture (pp. 47-69). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.