Straying from the point, but...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bill Moore
The Cold War was largely an ideological conflict. Governments are seen as wrong, not necessarily illegitimate, if they conform to a particular ideology those opposing the government believe in. Ideological forms provide resistance with ideas for an alternative future. Again it is ideas and ideology that rocks the world, nothing else.
I'm not so sure the Cold War was an ideological conflict. Between the US and the Soviet Union, perhaps. But the Cold War really wasn't cold at all... just as there's no such thing as a low intensity bullet, there's no such thing as a cold bullet. The hot part of the Cold War was fought by proxy, in the developing world, and involved dozens of different conflicts. Those conflicts may have been perceived as ideological by Americans and Soviets, but for those who actually did the fighting they were often anything but ideological. Many of those who fought for or against Communism in those proxy wars wouldn't have known Karl from Groucho, and hadn't a clue about the ideological baskets in which faraway governments framed their domestic conflicts.