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The ASSAI was a capitalist democracy. Individuals elected the government from a range of political parties through voting. Individuals had certain rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press. There was a free market economic system with minimum state interference in private businesses. Since the USA had a lot of individual freedom and chances for an individual to prosper, it was seen as a ‘land of opportunity. ‘ Therefore, the Soviet Union felt threatened that Aqua’s political system would attract its people.
This insecurity led to many of the actions that USSR took against USA and also started strong anti-capitalist propaganda in the country. Also, communists believed that the fatalist system allowed the rich to prosper at the expense of the poor and so was evil, and that the communist system was superior. USSR was intimidated by the capitalist system and wanted the communist way to spread throughout the world, which led to its expansionist policy. On the other hand, USSR was a communist nation. There was a single party state which was supposed to represent the views of all citizens and rule on the behalf of the people.
The government controlled all aspects of life and the rights of individuals were seen as less important than the good of the society s a whole. The economy was state-owned and all industries were owned and run by the government. Goods were distributed amongst people by the state and everyone had to work for the collective good of the society. Even though Stalin’s rule was more of a dictatorship than it was a communist regime, it still threatened the USA as communism promoted equality, especially economic equality, which was absent in the USA and may have appealed to American people.
Similar to the USSR, this resulted in Aqua’s hostile attitude towards USSR and anti-communist propaganda. Also, the USA disliked Stalin’s dictatorship which had led to many deaths and the purges of 1935-1938, which made it even more antagonistic towards USSR. The USA was desperate to contain communism, as it threatened the capitalist way of life. As Stalin told a fellow Communist at the Yalta conference, “they [Roosevelt and Churchill] will never accept the idea that so great a space should be red. Even before 1945, which is generally taken to be the beginning of the Cold War, the USA and USSR had a history of mistrust. Some was, of course, due to their different political systems. Aside from that, USSR signing the Nazi-Soviet Pact and Stalin’s harsh dictatorship created mistrust from the Aqua’s side. The USSR was suspicious of the LISA due to various other factors. In 1918-1919 the western states had intervened against the communist government in the Russian Civil War, which understandably led to hostility towards the western Allies.
Also, the appeasement policy followed by the allied powers in the sass’s showed to the USSR that they would rather ally with Hitler and use him to destroy communism. Lastly, Britain, France & USA delaying the opening Of second front during the Second World War in 1942 was seen as a deliberate act to weaken USSR so that it would not be in a position to demand at the post war conferences if the allies won. This mistrust between the two nations led to actions that further increased their enmity. User’s actions from 1 945 were important in escalating the Cold War.
From 1945 to 1949, the Soviet Union rapidly took over most countries in Eastern Europe, which became one-party communist states controlled by the USSR. It had taken over Albania, Bulgaria, the Baltic States, Hungary, Romania, Poland ND Czechoslovakia. This meant that Eastern Europe was now more or less a Communist bloc, which created a more tangible barrier between the West and the East. It led to the drawing of the Iron Curtain, the mythical division between the communist East and the democratic West.
Churchill coined this term in his Fulton speech of 1946, where he said that that “an iron curtain has descended” over Europe. Soviet expansion also quickened the set up of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. Moreover, Stalin set up the Conform (Communist Information Bureau) in 947, to link Communist parties in Eastern Europe and worldwide in common action. USSR also came up with the Molotov Plan and set up the Common (The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) in 1949, to coordinate and link economies of Eastern European countries.
This was in retaliation to Aqua’s Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan and divided Europe more firmly. Additionally, the Berlin Blockade that lasted from 1948 to 1 949 largely resulted from User’s hostility. In June 1948, USA and Britain introduced the new revalued currency Deutsche into the Attrition and then into West Berlin creating a crisis as East Germans rushed in to change their currency. Stalin believed that the new currency would undermine Soviet control of Eastern Germany and so, on 24th June, Stalin blocked all road, river and rail traffic into West Berlin, which cut all essential supplies to the region.
The Western Allies decided to airlift supplies to West Berlin and finally, Stalin lifted the Blockade in My 1949. The Blockade was the first open Cold War conflict between the two sides and divided the world into two clear blocs between the two superpowers. It created a world wide awareness of the conflict and penned of the Cold War. Additionally, it led to the formation of NATO and consequently, the Warsaw Pact. Historian Jack Watson rightly puts it, saying “Above all confrontation made both sides even more stubborn. Also, in 1955 West Germany joined the NATO and the USSR retaliated by setting up its own organization, called the Warsaw Pact. This formally tied the Eastern European countries of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Albania , Bulgaria, Romania and later East Germany in a military alliance to the USSR. This divided the world into two armed camps, the NATO and the Warsaw, and rather solidified the Cold War. However Aqua’s actions were no less responsible for the Cold War.