1. Cold War Causes
After the surrender of Germany and World War II came to an end, The United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) emerged as the two global
superpowers in the world. The two countries put their differences aside during World War II to work together and defeat the axis countries. Directly
after World War II ended tensions between the US and USSR immediately escalated. The battle between the two was a fight of ideals, the democratic
United States and the Communist USSR. Although no actual military campaigns were launched during the Cold War, billions of dollars were spent to
bulk militaries incase of a nuclear war. This paper will examine the causes and the effects of the Cold War. Towards the end of World War II the
alliance between The United States and the Soviet Union were growing thin. The two did not have the best relationship and this showed after the war.
The main cause that became the driving factor behind the two's arguments was their governments. The United States believed everyone had the right to
be free, the exact opposite of the Soviet Union's communist government....show more content...
This lead the USSR to take over and force communism on the countries around them in the Baltic Sea. The United States Viewed this communist
Eastern European as a threat to freedom everywhere. This led the United States to put the Marshall Plan in place which provided economic aid to the
war torn Western European countries. The USA did this to make sure the rest of Europe was strong enough to protect their freedom from the Soviet
Union. This move by The United States solidified the Cold
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2. Causes of the Cold War Essay
Causes of the Cold War
In this paper I will discuss what actions and thoughts added up to cause the cold war. The cold war lasted from September 1, 1945 to about December
25, 1991. That is about forty–five years, which is an extremely long time. The cold war was a global competition basically between two sides, the Free
World, which was led by the United States of America, and the Communist World led by the Soviet Union. The struggle took place through indirect
military conflict, and direct competition in the areas of economics, diplomacy, culture, space exploration, and political theory. It also involved nuclear
stand offs, espionage, and global competition for other nations. The cold war has established the framework for most...show more content...
Things especially heated up between the two when the Soviet Union would not accept the offer from America to give reparations for after the war.
This aid was offered through the Truman Doctrine, which happened in March 1947. What it stated was that American aid was being offered to
European countries that bordered onto Communist countries. The Marshall Plan, in June of 1947, which offered aid outside of Europe to stop the
spread of Communism–called containment. Then the USSR set up Comminform in September 1947. Which Stalin said was a news agency, but really
it was a means of resistance to the Marshall Plan in Western Europe and to consolidate Soviet control over the countries of Eastern Europe. The Soviet
ambassador to the United States was Novikov at the time. Novikov suggested that the United States wanted to form a Western European alliance
directly against the Soviet Union. He felt that the Truman Doctrine was the first step towards this goal, but it had been too harsh to attract any
European support. Then he said that the Marshall Plan represented a more appealing tactic to involve the Western Europeans in the creation of an
anti–Soviet alliance. However apparently the United States was not just pressuring Western Europe, but Eastern Europe as well. This partially, made
the Soviet Union very angry. Maybe if the Marshall Plan had been limited to just Western Europe, maybe it would have been less threatening to the
Soviet
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3. Causes of the Cold War Essay
There are several who have a different approach of whether it's the U.S or the Soviets' fault for causing the Cold War. In reality, they have always had
clashing ideologies and different structures of government that have played a major role in leading them to embark upon such a distrustful relationship.
Furthermore, the Soviets distrusted the U.S way before WWII when they intervened in the Russian Civil War and didn't recognize the Soviet Union
until 1933. As a result, during and after WWII, the Soviets were determined to dominate European countries with their own political agenda to become
the hegemonic power and believed the U.S. had the same motive. However, the U.S was more eager on protecting these Eastern countries from
communist...show more content...
And when the U.S dropped the nuclear bomb on Japan in 1945, the Soviets felt threatened and justified their own demise in the matter by
reckoning that the U.S is trying set an example for others, indirectly stating that they are vigorously in possession of such power, completely
destructing cities . Consequently, this drove the Soviets to become even more active and to have a stronger stance in foreign policy (Doc B). In
addition to, the Soviets also believe that the U.S was trying to spread capitalism across Europe by establishing the Marshall Plan in which the U.S
financially helped European countries to boost their economy and social status. This program was also applied to the Soviet Union but they didn't
accept it because they believed that it was a direct attempt for the U.S to dominate European affairs (Doc E), since those that accepted this plan were
to become its allies in return for the aid provided. The U.S did not want to engage in immediate war with the Soviets, and as a solution to set a
blockade against Soviet ideologies, they adopted "containment", which derived from the Long Telegram that George Kennan drafted (Doc D). This
message to Washington D.C. explained that the Soviet Union will inevitably collapse if they contain them and their policies since
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4. the cause of the cold war Essay
In my opinion ,the US should bear a bigger responsibility for causing the cold war .After the second world war , the ideological difference ,mutual
distrust and the disappearance of the common enemy (germany ) , these all are the causes of the cold war .However ,these comflicts were all brought
by the US . Many historians believe that the Cold War was inevitable once the common enemy, Germany, was defeated after the end of World War II.
Other historians such as John Gaddis stress that neither superpower can be held solely responsible for the ideological war that lasted half a century.
These historians believe that the US and the USSR followed a pattern of action and reaction; and that neither nation had a definitive plan of action
(Todd,...show more content...
This is because the USSR took these policies as a direct attack against communism. Stalin coined the term "dollar imperialism" for the US foreign
policies because they offered economic aid to nations in Europe that were detrimentally affected by WWII in an attempt to make these nations
economically dependent on and politically influenced by the US. It caused fear and paranoia in the USSR because the soviet communists believed
that the US would gain political and economic control of the countries in need of aid. It also caused fear and paranoia because the Truman Doctrine
and Marshall plan condemned communism as evil and it took action to prevent the spread of communism to any susceptible nation by providing
military assistance. The USSR was upset that the US could do such a thing, thus they responded furiously to these policies by developing their own
similar form of economic aid. These were called the Molotov Plan and Comecon which forcefully imposed economic aid on countries such as Czech
(even if these nations wanted the aid of the US instead). These actions and reactions caused tensions to greatly rise in the Cold War (Todd, 2009).
Thus, it can be argued that it was not only Truman's policies, but Stalin's policies that also played a major role in the Cold War.
Stalin's foreign policies such as establishing a Soviet–form of communism on a
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