Quote 2

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 413.

Quote 1

II. The four following statements typify the four different interpretations of the causes of the Cold War. Which of them is closer to your understanding of the issue? Explain why.

Who said that capitalism is meek and mild? Capitalism is BY NATURE aggressive. Businessmen WANT to dominate the world market, and think it is good to want to do so. After 1946 American businessmen had the American government enthusiastically behind them. And together they set about systematically destroying ‘the opposition' – which, in global terms, meant the Soviet Union. It was American capitalism that caused the Cold War, and it had the additional advantage that the Communists (since they used political means to assert themselves) could so easily be made to look oppressive and tyrannical. They didn't stand a chance.

It seems almost irreverent to say so – given the millions of people who died because of it – but the whole Cold War thing was no more than a lack of communication. Both sides decided at Potsdam that the other was impossible, and they just stopped talking to each other. As soon as Kennedy installed the hotline, the Cold War ceased to be a threat to humanity. And the Cold War didn't end with the collapse of Communism in 1991; it ended long before that, when

Gorbachev and Reagan started being honest with each other.