Cold War Cultural, Economic, Political, Religious, and Social Dimensions

The Cold War 1917-1991
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Date of Submission The Cold War 1917-1991
The cold war was a state of tension and unfriendliness between the Soviet Union from the mid (currently the Russia) and the United States of America. It is, therefore, a common term employed to show the conflict that existed politically between the liberal democracies such as the US and the European Social states. Despite the fact that the exact period of the war as per the studies made is not well established, many of these studies concluded that it happened between 1917- 1991. It became more intense immediately the Second World War came to an end. It is popularly called “cold war” since the parties did not participate in an active fight because both of them feared the escalation of nuclear weapons. In the process, there were numerous indirect conflicts, for instance, the Korean War and the Vietnam War (Martin, 2013). The organization and the execution of the cold war had several dimensions which led to the escalation of the war among the fighting nations. Direct military attacks were not utilized but the religious, cultural, social, economic and political affairs played a great role in the war.
Religion dimension of the cold war
Religion played a crucial role in the Cold War. Many scholars considered the war to be religious involving two great religious wars; the God-fearing nation and the pagan religion. It is a war in which the Christianity was appropriated by western propagandists and policymakers for the anticommunist arsenal. Christianity does not imply that it was a tool for psychological warfare but rather Church leaders were so active in political games during this era. The war was a simplistic depiction which was promoted and supported in the highest echelons nations and the rulers of US essential institutions (Martin, 2013).
Truman as a leader made religion America’s ideological justification for abandoning America’s time of war cooperation with the Soviet Union. Several people regarded America as a force for good in the international moments. The group that was against the communist crusade was to have severe consequences for the Christian America. It contributed to the growth of religion. The strategic utilization of the faith to make the American’s policies legitimate while making those of the Soviet Union to be evil it impacted negatively the usual means of diplomacy and discourse that could have helped in reducing excess costs and also many consequences of the cold war. A crucial way regarded to have involved religion in the war was through turning the war to religion-political exercise through a configuration of inter denomination association that changed the landscape of America regarding religion (Lendvai, 2008).
The leadership of America under Truman needed more support from church leaders which was regarded as a political maneuver and therefore could not get the support as he expected. Churches coming within the sphere of Soviet withdrew from the exercise entirely. Despite this, Truman was able to utilize religion efficiently to change the wartime policy of cooperation involving the Soviets. The leader was able to use religion to persuade the people to reject isolationism, accept the global engagement as part of the mission given by God to the world (Lendvai, 2008).
Cultural dimensions of cold war
The cold war had a significant impact on various cultures primarily to the states involved either directly or indirectly. An example entails the South East Asian culture that was impacted since the 1940s to the late 1970s. The culture is believed to have been shaped due to long-standing search for national identity and independence that happened in an environment of intense rivalry involving the US and the Soviet Union. Also, the People’s Republic of China offered another international competitor for influence to the Southeast Asia (Martin, 2013).
Americans and the Soviets both regarded culture as a crucial tool in the struggle to acquire influence in Europe during the cold war era. Both believed that expanding the vitality of its culture could impact positively in getting support. The US had a mission of promoting high elite culture in the entire Europe. They did this because they believed Europeans would respond positively to American elites more than they would have returned to their popular culture, which was considered by many political leaders as coming from a lower social class. The Americans were concerned about saving their culture and also were against anticommunism information in Europe (Farida, 2007).
On the other hand, the Soviet was concerned about spreading their culture using conservative approaches of propaganda. They were so discouraged since some of their youth were slowly adopting American culture. To combat this, the Soviet banned m...