Cold
War
Ideologies
East-West
ideological gap
'Ideological' means 'beliefs'.
Make sure that you know about the
ideological gap between America and Russia, and that you are able to
talk about its
results/significance.
What you need here is to be able to flesh out the table that
you remember from this Causes of the Cold War diagram:
|
|
America |
Russia |
|
Ideology |
Capitalist |
Communist |
|
Democracy |
Dictatorship |
|
Human Rights |
No personal freedoms |
|
Aims |
Recovery |
Reparations |
|
Protect democracy |
Buffer states |
|
History |
1939 |
1918 |
|
|
1944 |
To expand this basic list - which will barely get you to
level 2 - you will need to check out:
●
East v West - a simple view
● this Spidergram:
Ideological
differences
●
and Capitalism v
Communism, a 1977 textbook account.
You would also do well to be aware of President Truman's
'take' on the differences, remembering that he is biased:
Source
A
One
way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished
by free institutions, representative government, free elections,
guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and
freedom from political oppression.
The
second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed
upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled
press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of personal
freedoms.
A
speech by President Truman of the US (1947)
-
Post-1991 historians now believe that the ideological clash
was the chief cause of the Cold War.
-
Because democracy and Communists were beliefs, they
gave the Cold War the feeling of a religious war, with the kind of
bitterness that attends a religious war (e.g. the 'kitchen debate' between
Nixon and Khrushchev in 1959).
-
Because capitalism and communism were ideologies, they both
felt the need to prove that they were better than the other by competing
(e.g. led to the arms race, the space race, the Olympics, propaganda war
etc.)
-
Because they were beliefs, they affected people INSIDE the
country, which led to fear (e.g. McCarthy 'witch-hunts' of the 1950s/ USSR
arrested 'dissidents').
-
Russia was on the back foot re human rights - led to Poland
and Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968) trying to get free, which
caused international crises.
-
Russia's desire for a buffer led to 'salami tactics', and
because the USA interpreted this as empire-building, it led to the Truman
Doctrine and Marshall Plan.
-
Britain and America's desire to build up West Germany as a
prosperous capitalist trading partner led to the Berlin Blockade and
(because so many people in the east were defecting) to the Berlin Wall.
|
Revision Focus
This is a Paper 1
topic, so concentrate on learning:
1. WHAT
happened
2. EFFECTS/
Importance
Links
e-book on Causes of the Cold War deals with the general context
Online revision sheet
Essay on Why the
superpowers hated each other |
Revision Diary