I need a list of causes of the Cold War. And also what role did the ideology play in the Cold War?

Answer 1

A favourite subject of mine. Although I am finished with that aprt of the course, unfortunately.

Causes-
-Fear of Nuclear weapons (From the Soviets of the Americans)
-Fear of 'Domino Effect' Expansionism (From the Americans of the Soviets)
-Paranoia that the other wanted World Domination (From both on Both)
-Ideological Opposition (Both on each other)
-Bitterness about lack of friendship (Fro mthe USSR on the USA. The Americans dropped the Nuclear bombs in perfect timing with a conference of leaders called the 'Potsdam Conference' which shocked and insulted Stalin).

What role did Ideology play?
In Capitalist belief, spreading free market is an essential step to making as much money as possible. The Second World (All the Communist countries) were not free Markets and not available to them. Converting them would expand US Economic growth at the same time.

On the other hand, the Communists believed that a Revolution should spread all over the world, and although it was initially Trotsky's policy to have a world revolution, Stalin Adopted it not long after Trotskys assasination and began more aggressive policies to support Communist revolutions around the world. Americans became scared of Communism stealing away a Free Market from more countries, and Presidents used the policy of 'Brinkmanship' and 'Containment' which meant that Communism would never grow, but stay the same or get smaller because any offensive maneavours by the USSR would be opposed by the USA in equal force to the USSR and the USA would support nations bordering Communist one3s, and back non-communist parties in countries that had large communist parties, in order to hold the communist expansionism at bay.

Answer 2

There was really only one cause of the Cold War.

At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union gobbled up Eastern Europe, including East Germany. They forced those countries to be Communist. They refused to leave the areas they had occupied after driving Nazi Germany out. The Western Bloc (United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, France, and a lot of small countries) just wanted to free occupied countries, and did not try to "own" them.

So, yes, this was a "war" of ideology. Communism against Democratic government.

Both the Soviet Bloc and the Western Bloc tried to get non-aligned countries to come over to their side. These countries were known as "Third World" countries. In those days, that had nothing to do with poverty, it just meant countries that were not lined up with either of the "First Two Worlds" -- the Communist Bloc and the Western Bloc. After many years, "Third World" came to mean "poor" because if you didn't join up with one of the two big guys, you got very little foreign aid.

The problem with the cold war was that both the Soviets and the United States and its allies supported a lot of nasty dictators because they were "friends" of their side. A good example is the Soviets supporting Fidel Castro in Cuba. This was the idea that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." It didn't work. It just created more hatred and bitterness in the world.

Answer 3

The Cold War had its beginnings shortly after Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrew the First Provisional Reussian Republic in October of 1917 and established Soviet Russia. Great Britain and the other nations who were still at war with Imperial Germany sent troops to Murmansk, Archangel and Vladivostok Russia to "guard allied munitions". Over the period of time from early 1918 to 1920, the American contingent from Michigan fought the 25th division of the Red Army up and down both sides of the Dvina River.
Soviet Russia sent its first diplomatic representative to the U.S. in the 1920s and he was arrested and imprisoned for being a communist. It wasn't until the first term of President Franklin Roosevelt's administration that we extended diplomatic recognition to what had now become the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. During World War Two, we and the Soviets formed an alliance of convenience to fight against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. However, the Soviets did not enter the fight against Japan until a few days after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war, we looked upon the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe as a threat, even though that Soviet action had been sanctioned at a meeting of the wartime powers at Yalta on the Crimean Peninsula in the Soviet Union. The U.S. helped create the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to form a military alliance which could stop the Soviets from gaining any more territory in Europe. The admission of West Germany into NATO fanned Soviet discontent, since it was Germany which had inflicted over 30 million casualties on the Russians in two world wars.
The Soviets made the U.S. and the Western nations nervous when they cut off access to Berlin. That city lay within the Soviet Zone of occupation in eastern Germany. We countered with a massive airlift from West Germany into Templehoff Airport to bring needed supplies to Berlin.
The Soviets relented and lifted their blockade. In 1961, the Soviets convinced the government of East Germany to build a wall which formed a barrier between West Berln in the U.S. British and French occupation sectors from East Berlin in the Soviet occupation sector. Tensions mounted on both sides, but the wall remained in place until November of 1989, when both West and West Germany were unified. Tensions rose again in October of 1962 when Cuba, another communist nation, became a potential launching pad for Soviet intermediate range missile which could reach targets in the U.S. A Naval blockade, coupled with a massive mobilization of American forces, finally caused the Soviets to relent and remove the missiles.
The Vietnam War came next where (initially) both sides used surrogates to engage in combat. The Soviets had the Viet Cong and regular troops of communist North Vietnam and the U.S. had the Army of the Republic of Vietnam in South Vietnam. Soon, the U.S. committed over 600,00o troops and the North Vietnamese entered the war in force following the effective destruction of the Viet Cong after the Tet Offensive in early 1968.
Tensions continued due to both powers having access to large arsenals of nuclear weapons. Spending on military arms increased. Soon, the cost of that arms race bit heavily into the Soviet economy and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed under its own weight in December of 1991.
The United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were the only two nations in the history of mankind that were formed on an ideology. Not loyalty to a king. Not a common connection to a religion. Not made up of distinct tribes wholly contained withi one's borders. Now, only one exists. So, it can be said that the United States of America won the Cold War. The only war that had no victory parade after it was over.