Mostly, I am interested in what was the real cause of the cold war. I read that it mostly has to do with ideological differences, and started in world war II, but I don't get how it all ties together. Also, why was there a big push to contain communism by the US?
The animosity can be seen going back further than WWII. You can see it right after the communist revolution in Russia. It stems a lot from the high contrast between communism and capitalism, and the fact that the soul purpose of communism was to turn Russia away from western capitalism and its downsides, which the Marxists/leninists and eventually stalinists all viewed as worse than almost anything else in the world. Because of this the west was fairly-reasonably paranoid of Russia up until wwII, when Russia and the west came together against Germany, but from the beginning there was fear that Russia might start an immediate war with the west as soon as Hitler was taken care of, which is why there was a high level of tension between the two sides directly after the war and was why the division of Germany was such a touchy subject for the west's military leaders. Nobody knew if the division would actually stay divided. There was a lot of assumptions that Russia and the communists would seek to expand and confront any capitalists anywhere in the world. Go ahead a wikiSearch the Red Scare for more details on why the big push against communism happened in the west, but for a general view from a non expert, thats my two cents
The papacy has long opposed communism, long before WWII. In May of 1891, Leo XIII issued the encyclical Rerum Novarum. This document is noted as the beginning of the crystallization of modern Catholic social justice thought. In it, the pope affirms the need for assistance for the working poor. However, he also rejects communism as an ideology. At the same time, he also rejects unrestricted capitalism, but affirms the right to private property.
This encyclical has been commemorated and updated by other pontiffs. Pius XI issued Quadragesimo Anno in 1931, John XXIII followed with Mater et Magistra in 1961, and John Paul II marked the centennial with Centesimus Annus in 1991. Each pontiff built on the last in delineating Catholic positions on social justice and economics, all of which were unfavorable to communism. This is speculation, but 2016 will mark the 125th anniversary of the encyclical, and I would be surprised if we don't see another economic and social justice encyclical on that date.
In March of 1937, Pius XI issued the most important document regarding Catholicism and communism--Divini Redemptoris. In it, the basic incompatibilities between the two ideologies are outlined. From section 3:
- This all too imminent danger, Venerable Brethren, as you have already surmised, is bolshevistic and atheistic Communism, which aims at upsetting the social order and at undermining the very foundations of Christian civilization.
Then we have the outright rejection in sections 12 and 14.
- What would be the condition of a human society based on such materialistic tenets? It would be a collectivity with no other hierarchy than that of the economic system. It would have only one mission: the production of material things by means of collective labor, so that the goods of this world might be enjoyed in a paradise where each would "give according to his powers" and would "receive according to his needs." Communism recognizes in the collectivity the right, or rather, unlimited discretion, to draft individuals for the labor of the collectivity with no regard for their personal welfare; so that even violence could be legitimately exercised to dragoon the recalcitrant against their wills. In the Communistic commonwealth morality and law would be nothing but a derivation of the existing economic order, purely earthly in origin and unstable in character. In a word. the Communists claim to inaugurate a new era and a new civilization which is the result of blind evolutionary forces culminating in a humanity without God.
- Such, Venerable Brethren, is the new gospel which bolshevistic and atheistic Communism offers the world as the glad tidings of deliverance and salvation! It is a system full of errors and sophisms. It is in opposition both to reason and to Divine Revelation. It subverts the social order, because it means the destruction of its foundations; because it ignores the true origin and purpose of the State; because it denies the rights, dignity and liberty of human personality.
So, one major Western institution (the Catholic Church) has a long history of antipathy for communism. The frosty relationship between the Vatican and Russia from the communist revolution to the 1980's and beyond is certainly heavily influenced by papal condemnations of communism in Russia and beyond.
The Western Powers, Britain, France, USA, and minor nations, like Greece, and the Japanese in the far East had all supported the various White Generals against the new Communist government of Russia, with both money and equipment, and, in some cases, actual military involvement. Given the attempt by the West to stifle communist Russia at birth, it is hardly surprising that the USSR saw the West as an enemy. By the 1920's the US had determined that communism was a "bad thing", and opposed communism everywhere it was found as an "evil" to be fought against, even supporting corrupt and equally evil regimes everywhere in the world that opposed communism, like Nationalist China.