CAN we seperate ideology and military dominance?

[communist_kyle]

can we seperate ideology from military/international dominance?

i am writing a paper entitled
"To what extent was the Cold War a battle between two states seeking to dominate the international system or two ideologies seeking the best way for people to live their lives?"

...and it got me thinking, is this question even valid? surely the cold war was about both? perhaps for the US it was about 'military dominance THROUGH ideology (neo-liberalism/free market)' and with the Soviet union it was about 'ideological dominance THROUGH military'?

any thoughts comrades?
thanks.

[Severian]

It's neither. It's a mistake of assumption to say the Cold War was simply between the U.S. and USSR, or between "Freedom" as defined by the U.S. versus "Communism" as defined by the USSR.

The Cold War, as a phase of world history, was a phase of the world class struggle. The U.S. was not contending simply with the USSR and the Warsaw Pact. It was contending with the world working class, and with anti-imperialist movements in the Third World revolution. During the Cold War, the war against all these was conducted under the banner of opposing the USSR. Like the devil, the USSR was supposedly the cause of every bit of unrest that troubled the capitalist order, from Mississippi to Vietnam.

The Kremlin, for its part, was not seeking "ideological dominance through military force." Its actions were not guided by ideology; rather a new "ideological" excuse was generated for whatever action it pragmatically needed at the moment. Both propaganda and military force served the same purpose, which above all aimed to isolate the USSR and get outside forces to leave it alone. Soviet foreign policy and military interventions were largely aimed at enforcing a "buffer zone" around the borders of the USSR.

[Forward Union]

Originally posted by [email protected] 10, 2007 09:01 pm
It was contending with the world working class,
So, might I add, was the soviet union. While the USA failed to get rid of all working class organisation, the USSR certianly succeded. banning "anti-government" pamphlets and executing workplace agitators and whild cat strikers.

The Working class couldn't organise in the USSR from the 1920s until the 1980s. They were literally opressed out of existance. Kudos to those that tried in Hungary to be smashed out of existance in the most horrific manner.

[Guerrilla22]

Power, ideology and economic prosperity are all interelated. When one country is effectively able to spread its ideology to other states, such was the case with the USSR in Eastern Europe and the US in the West, the balance of power can be shifted. Along with spreading ideology comes economic prosperity from increased economic cooperation and of course with economic prosperity comes the ability to build up a state's military, which can be used to aquire the previous two elements.