The Cold War involved the United States and the Soviet Union due to their different ideologies on ways of managing the economy of a country. Lenin created communism ideology after the Russian revolution, which brought tension to the U.S. due to ideological differences.
The Cold War began before World War II ended since each country saw the military power that the U.S. had in the war. Russia resolved to increase its military power by building nuclear power, which created tension between the U.S. and Russia. The two sides had different foreign policies and world political leaders who they supported.
For instance, in 1950, Russia supported the military invasion of South Korea by North Korea. However, America supported South Korea by providing military aid to suppress the North Korean military threat. The beginning of the Cold War was marked by the formation of NATO and the Soviet Union. Each side wanted to be the world superpower by controlling the economy and world politics.
The tension between the two blocs was due to the type of military technology used, specifically nuclear weapons. After the U.S. had bombed Japan to suppress its resistance in World War II, Russia realized that it did not have the military strength to be the superpower.
The Soviet Union resolved to increase its military technology by investing more in its nuclear weaponry. This action created tension between policymakers in Moscow and those in Washington. The U.S. reacted by increasing its military strength by building more weapons hence creating tension.
The other issues that created tension between the two blocs were Berlin, Proxy Wars, and the Cuban Missile crisis. The two blocs did not fight directly. However, they fought through proxy wars. For instance, America attacked Vietnam in 1960 to stop communism spread by the Soviet Union. Each side was determined to increase the number of countries supporting their ideology.
The communist ideology was aimed at enhancing social welfare by restricting ownership of the limited resource. The capitalist ideology proposed for individual ownership of factors of labor and control of the economy. Both the Soviet and U.S. used funding and military support to encourage countries to support them. In Vietnam, the Russian used the North Vietnamese to contain the U.S. attack by providing military support such as weapons.
America tried to restrict the spread of communism outside the country through military intervention and financial support to attract countries to support capitalism. America also resolved to contain the export of communist ideology to other countries by developing foreign policies aimed at fighting its spread.
They ensured that few countries in Europe and Asia followed this ideology by making it clear through the foreign policies that they would stop any bilateral trade if a country supported the Soviet Union. President Truman started the Marshall Plan with the aim of enhancing the economic stability of European countries to encourage the European countries to adopt capitalism.
The media also played a key role in containing the spread of communism in and outside America. During the Cold War, the media consisted of radio, film, TV, and print media. In the U.S., the media provided details of the state’s foreign policies and the need to support the policies to end communism.
They also presented communism as a weak system by showing how the countries that supported the ideology failed to make any economic progress. The aim of the mass media was to shape the public perception of communism and encourage support for capitalism.