When someone thinks of Cold War Europe, minds and heads immediately turn towards the United States and the Soviet Union. The on going controversy went on for decades until finally the end of the war in 1991. There were several different goals from each side of the different countries, but to begin with, their goals saw commonalities as well but were handled differently. The “cold” war began shortly after World War II ended. Although there was no large scale fighting, each side of the country had a rivalry with each other for the same reasons. The end of World War II was not just the end of the war, but it brought up fears and a tense dynamic between two nations that changed society. The period was shaped, obviously, by the war that had just passed. But there were powerful forces that surrounded tensions in many countries following the war, which came to be known as the “post-war period” of the Cold War. In class, we prefaced on the fact that a huge reason why this came to be was because of the ideological differences between the two countries (Lecture, 9/20). Even though they shared the same goals in sight, they fought in different ways to bring upon these different ideas. It was a great power competition, US vs. Soviet Union, serving ideas of political and economic forms between liberal democracy and communist dictatorship, the sole difference of the disagreements in the Cold War. Different arguments come into cause or what originated this Cold War and it shaped the world as we know it today.
Goals for the post-war period Europe were similar for both the Soviet Union and the United States. Each nation had a vision for their countries but sought out solutions differently. To begin with, each nation wanted to accomplish three things; Democratize political power and social participation, broaden social and economic democracy (broaden the basis of economic and social opportunity), and fix international security through democratization (Lecture, 9/20). These two sides showed that they differed fundamentally in on how to achieve the goals. You could say that Europe was split by blocks, that once again became divided by two powers that became enemies that would lead us into a war for nearly 45 years. The Soviet Union wanted to create geographical buffer zones to create and protect western sides, but in contrast, the US thought that free roam and of people was okay. Soviet and American policies in the post war period were very different and reflected their own traditional interests greatly.
In the same period, we saw political forces (Communism and Democracy) collide head one. In Tony Judt’s book, Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945, he claims that in post-war years, the United States was on one side of the divide, representing Western Democracy, with the Soviet Union on the other side (Judt, 5). Obviously since there were great ideological differences it quickly established each other being an enemy since Germany being defeated was their only common foe at the time. When it comes to the US on Europe, they believed that multiparty and open borders would be the most politically stable system that would prevent fascists coming to power (Lecture, 9/20). That is because Democracy is basically the opposite of the ideas of Communism’s, and after fighting a war against fascism, radical ideologies were more clear in the eyes of an American, for example, Communism was something that was brought to the concern of Americans. As for the Soviets, they were concerned for what was going on in Western Europe as they knew were fascism came from. Because of this being different from the US view, Soviets thought that this would rise to an order would lead to a rise of fascism (Lecture, 9/20).
Soviet policies began to get extreme as time went on in the Cold War. The Soviets believed in a perfect country with complete control of their government, with no help from local civilizations. Western allies began to see that the Soviets had begun to push and probe communism to the limits of Europe and push the US out. This lead to an aggressive nature of the Soviets, only because they thought they were getting aggressive ideas from the Americans. We saw this aggressiveness through radio propaganda and the Soviets wanting not expansion, but outright control and possession of Western Europe (Lecture, 9/20). While we saw this happening in the Soviets control, we also saw how the US was being aggressive towards the Soviet Union. Wanting expansion of an ideological idea was enough to drive the Soviets and the US over the edge, leading to an on going battle.
Not only did Soviet policies start getting aggressive, the US wanted to get their ideas out to Europe and the rest of the world as well. Because of the idea of fascism and communism was the fear of this idea of the Cold War to the US, the spillover of Communism to other weaker countries in Europe was a threat. The US had shared their policies with the rest of the world with propaganda as well; the effort was brought forth to promote nuclear preparedness (Lecture, 9/20). There had been no physical contact between the two countries, but it permeated America culture because between Communism and the threat of nuclear war, the fight of the Cold War would keep going on and on.
In Mark Mazower’s book, Dark Continent Europe’s Twentieth Century, Mazower mentions how it was a “last stage” for ideological differences in Europe. It was crucial for each continent to not get involved in nuclear warfare as before (Mazower, xi). The Cold War years represented the mixing of confusing social ideologies- and Mazower explains it in this way:
…but in general, the two superpowers lived in ‘peaceful coexistence’, aiming at each other’s ultimate demise, but accepting each other’s right to exist in the present for the sake of continental stability and peace. The two systems armed themselves for a war that could not be fought, and competed to provide welfare for their citizens, and to bring economic growth and material prosperity. Bother offered some astonishing initial achievements; but only one proved capable of adapting to the growing pressures of global capitalism. With the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989, not only the Cold War but the whole era of ideological rivalries which began in 1917 came to an end (Mazower, xi).
To stem off of that quote, the Cold War, in my opinion stemmed off of the idea of irreconcilable ideological differences. The Cold War was created because of the disagreement of ideas between two huge nations here on Earth. After the end of the second World War, these two nations collided because of different ideas from each Communism and Democracy.