Principle of Opposites in Politics

 

A little extra. USSR propaganda used to portray the whole Western bloc to be monolithically unified behind the US. In reality many countries and movements, that aligned themselves with the US during the Cold War had vastly different political systems and objectives. The only common among them was their opposition to what USSR was.

That led to things such as arguments and disagreements between the US and South Vietnam government in Saigon for example. However, that also allowed the US to support Afghani mujahedeen, despite do not sharing their ideology.

In contrast USSR and eastern bloc had a lot more uniformity among them. That created situations like Soviet invasions in Hungary and Czechoslovakia where USSR overthrew governments of these countries that deviated too far from Communist orthodoxy.

After the end of Cold War, a lot of former allies went their own way. In fact, the US went after almost the same mujahedeen, they themselves equipped during the Soviet invasion.

It was the same during the WWII. USSR and the US had little in common, but both opposed Nazi. So, they worked together to end Nazism and won.

Perhaps there is a principle in this pattern. No matter what ideology is, eventually it attracts enough opposition from various quarters of society and the world. That opposition eventually takes the ideology down.