From the very first passages of “Ideology and the Origins of the Cold War, 1917-1962” it is clear that both the US and USSR have conjured massive theories about the course of history and where history will eventually end. The striking part about both governments’ thoughts are that they affect the world as a whole- which becomes dangerous. It is not simply that these governments are running their nations in a way that reflects their respective ideologies, but that they expect and make efforts towards bringing the rest of the world with them. These two giant world powers, who have completely opposite beliefs, thus see the other as the big bad in their roadmap of world history. Their beliefs were seemingly so deeply rooted in the idea of a clear path for history, that they saw the others destruction as a climax point. Woodrow Wilson believed, “Bolshevism, in this analysis, was a necessary phase before the inevitable normalization of the country. No evidence to the contrary could shake American liberals’ conviction that Russia would soon conform to the American model,” (Engerman 27). While Lenin remarked that American capitalism was the height and that American communists would revolt. Before WWII the US and USSR worked together economically and otherwise; however, that work was twisted in a way that showed each nation that the other was dying out. Engerman states, “By recognizing the need for markets, the Soviet Union was heading the American way. At the same time, Soviets celebrated the economic agreements as proof of the iron laws of capitalism; Lenin boasted to a comrade that they showed how capitalists contributed to “the preparation of their own [death],” (Engerman, 28). Moreover during WWII and afterwards the USSR and US display a very hot and cold relationship, common enemies and economic advances push them together while a chance at destruction of the other pull them apart. And while here in the US many of us are taught about American liberalism, how it is a good thing and how we were on the “right” side of history. Yet, both the US and USSR ideologies are so extreme, they are so far too one side that they are both dangerous. Both ideologies have imperialistic tones to them. Which leads me to question was the Cold War vital in some ways to keep these very powerful governments with very extreme ideas occupied? Would these powers have become more detrimental had they not had the adversary of the other?
Through the Iron Curtain
