history cold war

• Without a common enemy to fight

  Tensions between the USA and the Soviet Union intensified
• Neither side trusted the other due to ideological differences and the fact that the USA, unlike the Soviet Union, possessed nuclear weapons
• Ideology


  A set of political ideas about how society should be run
• Opposing ideologies of the USA and Soviet Union

  • USA, Britain and other capitalist countries said communism enslaved people to the state, capitalism was based on freedom and democracy, everyone should be free to make money for themselves, individuals are better at deciding what to make/sell than the state, trade between countries makes everyone richer
  • Soviet Union and other communist countries said capitalism exploited the workers to make the rich even richer, communism was based on fairness, capitalism only makes some people rich by exploiting everyone else, individuals are not as strong as everyone working together for the same aim, the state should take control of the economy and run it to benefit everyone
• The Long Telegram (1946) said the Soviet Union saw capitalism as a threat to communism that had to be destroyed, and that peace between a communist Soviet Union and a capitalist USA was not possible
• Novikov's Telegram (1946) said the USA wanted world domination and was building up its military strength, the Soviet Union was the only country left after the war that could stand up to the USA, and the USA was preparing its people for war with the Soviet Union
• Ideological differences and the atomic bomb had made relations between the superpowers worse
• The USA saw the Soviet Union as a threat to its economic interests in Europe


  The Soviet Union feared and resented the USA's nuclear monopoly, which did not end until 1949