The Cold War-Ideology or Geo-Politics 

The Cold War had already begun before the guns fell silent in Hitler’s Germany before 1945. Suspicion and mistrust had defined U.S.-Soviet relations for decades and resurfaced as soon as the alliance against Adolf Hitler was no longer necessary. Conflicting ideologies of the post-war era between Harry S. Truman’s United States of America and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union. The Soviets were keen on destroying Germany fully and make sure that many pro-Soviet colonies are formed while the Americans were keen on industrialization and stopping the spread of communism. Unable to come to a stand on one particular ideology, the two superpowers came into conflict. The USA feared the spread of communism in post war Europe because of the influence of the Soviet Union and wanted to make sure they weren’t successful in their mission. USA was keen on Industrialization and Democracy in Europe for post war stability. The Soviets were bent upon promoting communism in Europe to maintain their dominance. Not only was the Soviet Union communist, they were totalitarian, meaning all the power was with the rulers. The clash of ideologies is one of the most important reason for the Cold War to take place. Ideology influenced not only Soviet but also American policymakers. 

American Ideology: -

Scholars argue that the ideologies of the Americans was based upon development in Europe and getting it back in shape and was legitimate in its actions. The Soviet ideology was based on increasing security scare and to maintain power before the regime falls. The American policy was always against Slavery and more towards freedom to prevent post war chaos. But many scholars argue that the only reason USA ever took such an interest in Europe was because they were keen on being the only superpower. They wanted to ensure that communism doesn’t enter Europe so that they have more control in Europe. They were sure that the control of Europe is very important to stay the leader of the world. They also knew that an attack from the Soviets was inevitable and even some of their policies were based on American national security and American popularity. The American policymakers were favouring Absolutism over totalitarianism and other forms of governance. American Policy is believed to have fallen victim to the siren song of ideology. The lifestyles in each country also played an important role in forming policies because the Americans had somewhat ofa laid back lifestyle because they had a well-functioning democracy with people given freedoms and rights and where the people have the power. The Americans wanted peace but wanted to spread democracy and curb the spread of communism. The scholars still argue that ideology was more important for the Soviets more than the Americans and had a huge effect on their decisions.

USSR:

They had one main intention of increasing communism around Europe to maintain their position as a super power and also were afraid of the spread of capitalistic economic markets in Europe. The Truman Doctrine and the Marshal Plan linked financial support and military aid for Europe to freedom and democracy (which in other words is capitalism). This pushed the Soviet Union towards pursuing more aggressive steps to increase the spread of communism. Their policies depended heavily on what the Americans did and hence became crisi-led rather than development led. This affected many other countries in post-war Europe. The Soviets were more power hungry than keen on development of Europe. They wanted to be superpowers and would do anything to reach their agendas. Marxist thought inspired them and they were keen on spreading communism in West Europe because many important countries in the East had already taken Communism up as the form of government.

Ideology might have played an important role in the Cold War but it was not the only reason why the war took place. The hunger was power and world domination was another main reason for the eruption of the war. The strong dislike of Truman towards Stalin played a keen role because they were men of different ideologies. They both sought the same answers but had very different ways of solving their problems. Not only in politics, but in characteristics too, Truman and Stalin were two different and unique men. They wanted to throw the other out of power and dominate the world. The possession of nuclear weapons played a key role too. The Americans were safe with the possession of the nuclear weapons and were not revealing their secrets to the USSR. This created a lot of tension in the USSR ranks and they started developing such weapons. Once again, power and politics came to the foray. Thus ideology made some degree of conflict between the capitalistic west and communist east, but in fact the war was fought over issues such as global power and prestige, infused with a tradition of suspicion and perpetuated by government orchestrated, fuelled by political and economic instability.