Compare and contrast the form of democracy practiced in America to communism in Russia during the Cold War period

What was the Cold War? The Cold War was that in which is the term used to describe the previous-World War II struggle which was between the United States and its allies and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and its allies. The Cold War lasted from the mid-1940's until the end of the 1980's. During this time international politics were heavily shaped by the intense rivalry between the two great forms of power and the political ideas they represented. The two political ideas in which these different sides represented were democracy and capitalism for the United States, and communism for the Soviet side.

During the Cold War America found itself in defense of a weak, corrupt and unpopular regime and the American chief criterion was in opposition to Communism, rather than the positive embrace of democracy. "When the Soviet Union made American racism a principle anti-American propaganda theme in the late 1940s, civil rights in America became a terrain upon which an important Cold War ideological battle would be waged." During the Cold War the American Democracy was based upon the idea of equality and the fact that there was a racial segregation the U.S. was put on the chopping block for it was to be the epitome of equality and in fact was not.

The idea that America was attempting to transform the communist Soviet Union yet not completely equal on its own and within its affairs did not look good for those practicing communism were simply looking at America as a country practicing contradiction. When the Soviet Union made American racism a principle anti-American propaganda theme in the late 1940s, civil rights in America became a terrain within which an important Cold War ideological battle would be waged and America's form of democracy was put on the line. After the propaganda made by the Soviet Union there was a study put into action concerning race discrimination within the U.S.

The study argued that concerns about the impact of race discrimination on U.S. foreign relations led presidents from Truman through Johnson to pursue civil rights reform as part of their broader Cold War strategies. "While foreign affairs was only one of the factors motivating civil rights reform during these years, it was a crucial factor that helps us to understand why a period of domestic repression - the Cold War - was also a period during which some civil rights reform would take hold."(Mary L. Dudziak)

Within the Soviet Union the government is formed by the Communist Party. The people within a communist country do not have the right to form their own political parties and do not enjoy the right of assembly, of speech and of the press. Since these two systems of government are completely opposed to one another, there is little room for compromise between the United States and the Soviet Union.

"If there is one big lesson of the Cold War, it is that unilateral military intervention does not work to anyone's advantage, while open borders, cultural intervention, and fair economic exchange benefit all."

Deconde,Alexander. Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy. Simon and Shuster,2002

Dudziak L. Mary. Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy. Princeton University Press, 2000.

May T. Elaine. Homeward Bound:American Families in the Cold War Era. Basic Books,1999