The cold war Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

The cold war - Essay Example oviet ideology with regards to the way in which a state must be ordered and the manner of economic interaction that must be practiced was diametrically opposed to the approach that the United States and its allies proposed. As the dust was settling over Europe after the Second World War, the issue of rebuilding the shattered remains of these nations was foremost on the minds of the Allied powers. As such, the United States was specifically interested in setting up governments that were like its own model; a democratic capitalist society. Yet, due to the fact that the Soviet Union believed that democracy was merely a mechanism through which the moneyed aristocracy could lord over the resources and effect an even greater level of capitalist robbery this approach was scorned. Instead, the Soviet Union attempted to set up puppet states that were directed by Moscow and practiced a very similar, if not identical, form of communism. This led the United States to feel that the Soviet Empire was gorwing and threaetneed the very existence of Western Europe; and indeed the rest of the world. As the Soviet Union began to espouse a more and more aggressive line of expansion, the United States felt as if they were e ntering a zero sum game in which the Soviet Empire would eventually control much of the globe. All of this culminated in a decision by Washington, and its allies, to promote a direct level of opposition to this and seek to engage third parties as a means of promoting them towards Washington and away from Moscow. Furthermore, ideology also plays a powerful role with respect to the fact that economic competition between the opposing theories of communism and capitalism extended far beyond Europe and soon encompassed the entire globe; where the Soviets sought to garner support for a revolution of the proletariat and the United States sought to spread seeds of capitalism - oftentimes by force. The proxy wars and the political and economic posturing of both