Question

Write an informative, research-based essay that explains what factors contributed to the escalation of the Cold War. Develop your topic with properly cited, relevant support in the form of facts, definitions, concrete details, and quotations. << Read Less

Answer 1

Answer:

To be found in ¨The Age of Extremes¨ by Eric Hobsbawm

Explanation:

Hobsbawm states that the Cold War was based on a Western belief, absurd in retrospect but natural enough in the aftermath of the Second World War, that the Age of Catastrophe was by no means at an end.  J.F. Kennedy, one of the most overrated presidents according to Hobsbawm, shows this belief by saying: ´The enemy is the communist system itself... this is a struggle for supremacy between two conflicting ideologies: freedom under God versus ruthless, godless tyranny.´

It is exactly this democratic freedom that ironically fueled the Cold War fire.

Where the Sovjet government didn´t have to bother about winning votes the U.S. government did.

Another element that contributed to move confrontation from the realm of reason to that of emotion was the schizoid demand of the vote-sensitive politicians to roll back the tide of ¨communist aggression¨.

On the other side of the globe the Sovjet government, with a country and economy in ruins after the Second World War, they needed all the economic help they could get to survive. So on any rational assessment the U.S.S.R. presented no immediate danger.