The Cold War: Causes and Effects

Definition of the Cold War

• A state of hostility between two states characterized by ideological struggle rather than open warfare.
• Specifically, the Cold War was between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Causes of the Cold War

• Conflicting ideologies:
  • United States: Democratic capitalism (free market economics and political participation).
  • Soviet Union: Authoritarian communism (strict government control, redistribution of wealth, no voice in government).
• Universalizing ideologies:
  • Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union wanted everyone to adopt their ideology.
  • Each superpower aimed to prove its ideology's superiority by converting the world.
• Mutual mistrust:
  • Started before the end of World War II.
  • Agreements for free elections in Central and Eastern Europe were violated by Stalin.
  • Stalin kept countries under Soviet control as a buffer zone, leading to communist satellite states.
  • Germany was divided into four occupation zones, but Stalin refused to liberate Eastern Germany, creating another communist state.
  • Winston Churchill declared an "iron curtain" had fallen across Europe.

Effects of the Cold War

• Decolonization:
  • The U.S. and the Soviet Union competed to influence newly independent states.
• Non-Aligned Movement:
  • Formed by states refusing to be pawns in the superpower conflict.
  • Led by Indonesian President Ahmed Sukarno; first meeting in 1955 with 29 African and Asian heads of state.
  • Represented an alternative to the Cold War-dominated economic, political, and social orders.
  • Non-aligned states were shrewd in taking advantage of the Cold War rivalry to gain support and resources from both sides.
  • Example: Indonesia received aid from the Soviet Union but also suppressed its own Communist Party.