understanding8.1.1

=8.1.1 Origins of the Cold War= Describe the factors that contributed to the Cold War including the differences in ideologies and policies of the Soviet bloc and the West; political, economic, and military struggles in the 1940s and 1950s; and development of Communism in China. (See 7.2.3)

Focus Question
How did Cold War ideologies shape geopolitics?

Possible Concentration
At the end of World War II, Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union and Harry Truman was the President of the United States. While allies during wartime, the countries became ideological, political, and military enemies after the war ended.

Stalin wanted to create a buffer zone of friendly countries between the Soviet Union and Germany. Germany had invaded Russia in World War I and the Soviet Union in World War II. The Soviets believed a geographic buffer zone would prevent the possibility of future invasions. In addition, the Soviet Union wanted to spread communist ideology world wide. Decisions about Eastern European countries following World War II were made by the Soviet Union, since the Red Army had military control of nearly all of the Eastern European countries. Decisions about the future of Western Europe were made by the United States and Britain.

The Truman Doctrine of containment promised to assist free people in their resistance to Soviet expansion and the spread of communism anywhere in the world. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed by the United States and its allies. A military alliance known as the Warsaw Pact was formed by the Soviets and the occupied countries of Eastern Europe.

The world's two superpowers and their allies had set the stage for the Cold War. The United States and the USSR never declared war on each other. Each side, however, did support armed revolutionary groups who were involved in conflicts to undermine each other’s ideologies. The fear of nuclear annihilation constrained the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. from directly engaging in war.

During the 1940s and 1950s, a number of ideologically based conflicts pitted the ideas of democracy against those of communism. The Berlin Airlift; struggles for power in both Greece and Turkey; and the Korean War, an action by the newly formed United Nations; all involved the two superpowers, but did not bring them into direct conflict. Military blocs became trade networks. Free market economies grew and prospered with democratic institutions in the West, while state-run command economies were the feature of Warsaw Pact countries. The command economies isolated themselves economically by constraining trade to their ideological partners. In China, the communist party won the struggle for leadership. They enacted a centralized system of planning, education, manufacturing, agriculture, and development with the communist ideology as the guiding principle.

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