Each side feared the spread of the other's political system. Measures that one called protection could therefore look like a threat to the other.
An ideology is a set of ideas about how society should work. The USA generally supported capitalism: people and businesses could own factories, decide what to produce and trade for profit. It also supported multiparty politics, in which rival parties competed for government. In the Soviet communist system, the state owned much of the economy and central planners decided what it should produce. One Communist Party controlled political power. These are broad contrasts, not a description of every American ally or every policy.
Security fears made these differences more explosive. The USSR had suffered invasions from the west and wanted friendly governments along its border. Western leaders feared that Soviet control would prevent people choosing their own governments. Soviet leaders, in turn, saw American aid and overseas bases as ways to surround and weaken them. This is a security dilemma: a step intended to make one side safer frightens the other, which responds with measures of its own. Explaining a fear does not prove that the resulting action was justified.
Worked example: Why control of Poland caused alarm
Follow the same action from Soviet aims to Western fears.
- Soviet leaders wanted a friendly Polish government because Poland lay on the route an invader could take towards the USSR.
- Soviet backing for communist control, alongside restrictions on political opponents, limited Polish people's choice of government. Western leaders saw expansion rather than reassurance.
- That fear strengthened Western support for resisting further communist influence. Soviet leaders could then interpret Western resistance as hostility, increasing mistrust again.
Watch out for this
If Soviet leaders feared another invasion, their control of neighbouring states was simply defensive.
The fear helps explain the policy, but coercion means using threats or force to make others comply. A government can seek its own security while taking political choices away from people elsewhere.
Check your understanding
How could a measure presented as defensive deepen the Cold War?
- Its stated defensive aim settled whether neighbouring countries should accept it.
- Different political systems made cooperation impossible even when both faced Nazi Germany.
- It could make the rival feel less secure and encourage a response that increased mistrust.