“Ideology was the main factor that led to the emergence of superpower rivalry between 1943

and 1949.” Discuss.

At the end of WWII 1945, the two Superpower rivalries were the USSR, and US. Which after
the end of WWII had proven their military strength, and ability to defeat Germany. However
these powers although allies, at the time of WWII, had opposing ideological political policies,
with the USSR following communist one party state government, versus the USA’s
Democratic and capitalist state, furthermore they were both firm believers that their individual
systems ​(Democracy, and communism)​ had proven their worth after, the victory in the war
1945. ​Therefore this opposing ideology became more actively noticed during the
period of 1943-1949 leading to rivalries, conflicting perspectives of treaty agreements,
and proxy war conflict, Nevertheless after 1945 actions based on ideology and those
based on self interest became hard to differentiate.

The pre-existing opposing Ideology, between both US, and USSR superpowers was
one to become more actively noticed, throughout the development of the Cold War. This
pre-existing distrust is made evident with the creation of the Grand alliance in June 1941 in
which Rosevelt and Churhill sent aid to the Soviets, after being invaded by Germans.
However, Churhill made reference to the fact that if “Hitler invaded Hell he would make
reference to the devil at the house of Commons”. Thus the Grand alliance did not change
the way in which the “Soviet union was seen”. Moreover, as the US becomes more aware of
the great difference within ideology of two countries, more action is taken. This is seen after
Kennan's Long telegram feb, 1946 “ the soviet regime was cruel and repressive and justified
this by perceiving “nothing but evil”. Secondly, the Marshall Plan , created on the bases of a
capitalist perspective was not one to coincide with the Soviets ideologies, and thus was
opposed and claimed to be “dollar imperialism”, by the Soviets. Moreover, Stalin’s “ Two
Camp” Doctrine, which had been developed throughout the 1920’s and 30’s, was part of the
belief that Europe was divided into two oppsoing sides, and this was a firm foundation of
Soviet Policy. This was delivered in a Speech by Stalin in “1946”, and further enforced at the
Cominform meeting in Sept 1947 in Warsaw. Showing pre-existing opposing ideologies
between the two could lead to potential problems.

Furthermore, Ideological conflict became most evident with perspectives

discrepancies on “democratic elections”, and other key matters which lead to more actively
voiced ideological rivalry increasing tensions. Yalta february 1945, The big 3 signed
‘declaration of liberated Europe”, which was signed with countries having their own
ideological belief of the methods in which this could be accomplished. This was to be proven
with Poland where “Salami tactics”, was the method used by Stalin. Once Truman comes to
Power in July 1945 the discussion at “Postman'' regarding the lack of ‘free democratic vote’,
moreover his free election was not held until the 19th of january 1947 in which 246
candidates of Polish party were disqualified, 149 arrested, and 18 murdered, resulting in a
win for the Commmunist Polish party. The US and Uk, saw this as a clear breach of Yalta, as
it was not in line with their understanding of “democratic elections”. However the soviets
saw this as victory over western expansionism. Finally, Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech 5th
March 1946 “cloak secrecy that descends over Eastern Europe”. Stalin's response to this
speech was that it was seen as a “declaration of war”, comparing Churhill to Hitler. He saw
this as a matter of “race” supremacy being taken by the UK and US, since his actions were
in line with Soviet Ideology. Finally, rivalry became most evident in the first cold war crisis,
the Berlin Blockade Crisis of 1948-1949 due to the powers USA, and USSR were opposing
each other based on their inability to reach a final consensus on the future of Germany at the
London Conference of 1948. Showing how, this conflict had escalated, became more
publicly voiced as the cold war developed, and situations, in which methods of applying
opposing doctrine differed, and hence leading to rivalry.

Nevertheless, the emerging rivalries can also be seen as a consequence of “action vs.
reaction” from opposing party leaders, in which actions based on ideology where hard to
seperate from those based on “self interest”. With Roosevelt the ideological stands of Russia
did not seem to be a conflict during Tehran 1943 “I got along fine with Marshall Stalin, I
believe we are going to get along very well with him and the Russian people. Whereas we
see that this friendliness soon changes from february 1945, to July 1945Potsdam. As
Rosevelt passes away and is replaced by Truman. Truman suddenly becomes more actively
concerned with the “lack of free demoratic elections in Poland”, and within 2 years develops
a policy of “containment”, seen with the “Truman Doctrine” 1947, which is a key milestone in
American foreign Policy, and convenient way to fight against this sudden “communist threat
of the USSR”, furthermore a way to get involved in economic restoration of Europe as seen
with the Marshall plan allocation 17$billion to this. However, investing the largest amount of
money 3,176$ in their closest ally UK. Which is of convenience to the US. Furthermore,
these self-interested actions were also seen by the Soviet in Tehran, as Stalin left 30,000, to
claim “oil” seemed to have an economic interest, rather than it being a matter of ideological
confrontation. Not to Mention Stalin’s, public claim of the more intensified involvement in
eastern bloc government being due to a necessity to secure their borders, thus again fueled
by self interest.

Therefore, Ideology was a pre-existing factor that was key in starting rivalry with the
Superpowers, as it was pre-determined by 1943. However, actions taken by the different
leaders, and those reactions driven by Self interest were also significant in increasing the
Super power rivalry throughout the development of the Cold War, and thus determining
whether different ideology or self interest was the driving force, of this rivalry became harder
to determine in the events after 1945.