Abstract
This essay talks about the causes of the Cold War between America and the USSR. The causes mainly contain ideological confrontation, the balance of power between the great powers, the conflict of national interests and subjective reasons.
Key words:
Cold War causes America the USSR
Ideological confrontation
The Ideological confrontation between America and the USSR was one of the causes of the Cold War. America was open, democratic and capitalistic, but the USSR was closed, totalitarian and communistic. Different national nature decided they had different ideology. America is a country which was pursuing democracy and equality. But the USSR put the realization of communism society as the highest ideal and common goals.
American and the USSR’s were still strong. American military power and economic power were at an advantage. America monopolized the atomic bomb in military, and three-quarters of the world's gold reserved in America. “From 1955 to 1968, America's GDP was growing at 4% a year. From 1950s to 1960s, American economy emerged a period what western economists called "golden age". American gross national product increased from $23.3 billion in 1961 to $63.4 billion in 1971. From 1965 to 1970, American industrial production was growing at 18%.” The USSR’s military strength and economic strength improved a lot compared with past. The two countries were well-matched in strength. As the saying goes,” When Greek meets Greek, and then comes the tug of war.” As the two countries became stronger and stronger, the conflicts between them became deeper. So the well-matched strength between the two countries was one of the causes of Cold
It caused great casualties and economic losses. For example, “Estimates for the total number of casualties in the war was various, because many deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 75 million people died in the war, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians.” People saw the cruelty and inhumanity of war, so they rejected war, hated war, opposed to war, they were longing for peace. What’s more, although America and the USSR were still strong, they were destroyed by the war. They had a lot of problems to deal with after the war. Due to various factors, America and the USSR had a tense and fierce competition in the politics, economy, military, diplomacy, ideology, and so on. No armed conflict broke out