Kennan, Zubok, and Malia (“The Cold War-Ideology”, 2010) believe that the Cold War was based on different ideologies, democratic capitalism and communism whereas Halle (Wolk, 2010) and Litvinov (“Comments on Maksim M. Litvinov”, 2010) believe that the Cold War was a struggle for empire. Ideological struggle certainly contributed to the origin of the Cold War, but only to a certain extent. The struggle for empire was a major factor that developed the Cold War.  Although the Cold War started out as a conflict between two ideologies, it eventually shifted to a struggle for empire under the symbols of communism and democracy.

            The Russian Revolution in 1917 contributed greatly to the Cold War because it was the establishment of the communist Soviet Union, with a completely different principle from the Western Allies’ democracy and capitalism.  The Allies, particularly USA, perceived this as a threat since Lenin “declared a de facto ideological war on the capitalist ‘bourgeois scum’” (Hughes-Wilson, 2006) and “Long live the worldwide socialist revolution!”(Clark, 1989).  Lenin believed that USSR was encircled by capitalist countries that were ready to attack.  Their opposing ideologies caused deep suspicions and mistrusts, which contributed significantly to the Cold War.

It was clear that there was a shift from a conflict between two ideologies to a conflict between two superpowers, but it might not be clear what the turning point was.  One thing that could be assured was the fact that it started out as an ideology conflict and ended as a power struggle.   According to President Truman, communism was “relies upon …the suppression of personal freedom… it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities.” (“Truman Doctrine”, 2010).

Then, if the Cold War was not about ideology anymore, what was it about then? Dominance of the world. Stalin’s main concern was not about communism, but he wanted to spread the Russian sphere of influence throughout the world. He did this by using the symbol of communism.  Most communist countries, except Yugoslavia, regarded the Soviet Union as the leader of communism, therefore accepting advices, aids, and even commands from the Soviet Union and Stalin. 

Similarly, though not as obviously as the Soviet Union, USA gained dominance in western capitalist countries by implementing Marshall Plan, tagged along with ‘economic advisors’ who ensured that the markets were free and people had ‘freedom’.  Although the ideologies were still present and both sides regarded themselves as ideologists, the Soviets and the Americans were trying to expand their powers and spheres of influence rather than truly defending their ideologies.

Although the Cold War originated from conflicting ideologies, major wars such as Korean War proved that ideologies were just covering USSR’s and USA’s motive: spreading the spheres of influence throughout the world. Korean War was a proxy war between USSR, supporting and ‘giving advices’ to the communist North Korea, and USA, leading UN troops to help capitalist South Korea, rather than a truly ideological war.  Of course, there was still a common theme of communism vs. capitalism and democracy, but it was also geographically important to both superpowers.

South Korea was near Japan, which was considered ‘the American basis of capitalism and democracy in Asia’.  Surely, USA would want to spread its sphere of influence beyond Japan to other parts of Asia.  North Korea, on the other hand, was bordering the east-west Russian border.  Similarly, the Soviet Union would want to take control of the Korean Peninsula through communism, so that it would be no longer ‘encircled by capitalism’, as Stalin had always feared. Ideologies have been used to indicate which side a country was on during the Cold War, but what actually developed the Cold War was the Soviet and American agenda to dominate the world. The Cold War became less about fighting to defend ideologies but more about building empires.

            Vietnam War was another obvious example of how the Cold War had shifted from being a conflict about ideologies to a competition for land and influence.  Anti-Vietnam War protestors felt that Vietnam War was an unnecessary conflict which devastated Vietnam, its neighbors, and USA itself: a failure to ‘contain’ communism.  Furthermore, USA was being criticized for controlling and manipulating South Vietnam, acting no differently from USSR who treated Eastern European countries and other communist countries as puppet states.  USA was so determined to contain communism, in another word USSR, from dominating the world that it did not follow its own ideology of giving ‘freedom’ in order to stop USSR from spreading its sphere of influence.

Perhaps one of the most obvious events that indicated the full extent of a power struggle of the Cold War was the launching of Soviet satellite Sputnik1 in 1957, the origin of the space race.  The Soviets showed the Americans that they were able to defeat them in technology.  Clearly, that had hardly anything to do with communism vs. democratic capitalism, but it was a competition of two superpowers who wanted to dominate not only the world, but also the space through advanced technology and innovation.  During the Kitchen Debate in 1959, Khrushchev declared that “in another 7 years, we’ll be at the level of America, and after that we’ll go farther.”("The Kitchen Debate: Nixon And Khrushchev [1959].", 2010).

            The Cold War was far beyond a conflict between two irreconcilable ideologies.  It started that way and had maintained the ideologies throughout the Cold War, but as the Cold War progressed, it was about spreading the spheres of influence and dominating the world than defending the ideology.  Ideology turned out merely to be symbols which signify both sides of the Cold War, but not playing as a crucial part in the Cold War’s development as it has always been regarded by Kennan, Zubok, and Malia (“The Cold War-Ideology”, 2010).

Citations:

Clark, Ronald W. Lenin: The Man Behind the Mask. London: Faber and Faber, 1989. Print.

"Comments on Maksim M. Litvinov." Redirect to Secure Connection. Web. 06 Sept. 2010. <http://gozips.uakron.edu/~mcarley/Litvinov.htm>.

Hughes-Wilson, John. A Brief History of the Cold War: the Hidden Truth about How Close We Came to Nuclear Conflict. London: Robinson, 2006. Print

"The Kitchen Debate: Nixon And Khrushchev [1959]." Watergate.info - The Scandal That Destroyed President Richard Nixon. Web. 06 Sept. 2010. <http://www.watergate.info/nixon/1959_nixon-khrushchev-kitchen-debate.shtml>.

"Truman Doctrine." Spartacus Educational - Home Page. Web. 06 Sept. 2010. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAtrumanD.htm>.

"The Cold War - Ideology." Encyclopedia of the New American Nation. Web. 01 Sept. 2010. <http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Ideology-The-cold-war.html>.

Wolk, Herman S. "Who Started the Cold War?" Airpower. Web. 1 Sept. 2010. <www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil>.

Word Count: 979