In many minds, the concept of war settles on a form of revenge. For example, World War 1 (amalgamated with the long due causes of nationalism, militarism, alliances, and imperialism) was triggered by the urge of the ‘Triple Alliance’ to avenge Archduke Franz Ferdinand. World War 2 was triggered by the urge to regain the ‘German pride’, as a form of revenge for the damages experienced by Germany in the previous World War. This abstract of revenge was one that the Cold War ignored yet remained as fatal due to its hidden motives. Through evaluating the several strategies of the Cold war, one can distinctly recognise and understand the imperialistic greed that was transformed to be known as the passively fought “ideological battle”. 

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To begin with, the Cold War can ironically be understood as a consequence of the reparations required after the previous wars. This means that the Cold War used monetary aid as an incentive to convey an ideological belief, which in turn was fuelled by imperialistic benefit. For example, the Marshall Plan, initiated by USA, provided monetary and military aid to nations as a manner of avoiding Communist-Soviet control, which in turn formed additional imperial alliances as a benefit for USA. This example can be understood as the concept of an “ideological battle” was essentially an excuse for economic and imperial greed which at the time was crucial for reinstitution post the World Wars. Andrew Heywood mentions in his book titled “Global Politics”, that “Superpower states provided an irresistible opportunity for aggrandizement and expansion”. This evaluation by Andrew Heywood, once again proves the Cold War to be in essence, an opportunity to achieve imperialistic and economic expansion, which is hidden by the perception of it as a solely “ideological battle”. 

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In continuation, the Cold War was considered ‘cold’ essentially since the superpower antagonism did not ignite direct military confrontation between the two, which instead used proxy-states to conduct the same. The superpowers used proxy-states to avoid any form of industrial or physical destruction in the homeland, which would be against the hidden economic incentives. The Vietnam War which was fought internally between the USSR- supported communist north side, and the USA-supported capitalist south side, acted as an external battlefield to settle the ideological issue. It allowed for zero damage to the homeland of the ‘Superpowers’ and continued the chase to reaching “ideological dominance”, which one can understand through this proxy war, was truly “economic dominance”. In essence, the Vietnam Proxy war was a war fought over common geopolitical interests to decide the dominant ideology, which in turn would lead to economic dominance, hence the hidden imperialistic goal of the Cold War. 

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To conclude, the famous quote that is attributed to Winston Churchill, “History is written by its victors” remains true in the case of the Cold War, since capitalist dominance today shuns communism due to the fall of the Soviet Union and rise of the USA. As supported by Marxism, through this evaluation, one can understand how the Cold War was in essence an imperialistic chase because of worldwide class struggle, rather than a solely ideological one.