1, USA The Cold War was a geopolitical war that was mostly caused by the United States.  Even though the USSR was a major player in the world and the Cold War, the United States was more responsible in starting and escalating the Cold War itself through containment, continuing the space race, and the Red Scare.  These actions led the USSR to believe that the United States wanted to go to war with them and the USSR was more than willing to participate, especially after the victory over Germany in World War II.             First, containment was a contributing factor to the Cold War that got the USSR unnecessarily angry at the United States.  Originally the plan of George Kennan, “Containment provided a conceptual framework for a series of successful initiatives undertaken from 1947 to 1950 to blunt Soviet expansion” (Anonymous, “George Kennan and Containment”).  With this idea, Kennan felt that the U.S. should stop the USSR from expanding its communist influence to other countries that were not communist countries at that time.  While limiting communism can be seen as a positive action, Russia did not take too kindly to containment because they wanted to spread communism to as many places as possible.  As a result, they became irritated with the United States for trying to stop them from spreading communism which, according to Russia, was none of the United State’s business.  Therefore, by meddling in Russia’s business with regards to spreading communism the U.S. gave the impression that they wanted to pick a fight with the USSR.             Second, the United States made it seem as if they wanted to overpower Russia when they continued the space race.  When the USSR launched Sputnik into space, “Americans feared that the world would see the Soviet system as superior, and many questioned whether the free and open society of 1950s America was as dominant as they had thought” (Anonymous, “The Space Race and the Cold War”).  This fear led them to furiously attempt to outdo Russia with regards to space exploration.  This resulted in a competition to get humans into space that only escalated tense relationships between Russia and the U.S.  When Russia realized that the U.S. wanted to overpower them with regards to space exploration, they believed that the U.S. was a threat and that they wanted to go to war.             Finally, the Red Scare was the third and most direct opposition to communism and the USSR that was associated with violence.  When the U.S. government suspected people of being communists, “few people dared to criticize the questionable tactics used to persecute suspected radicals” (Anonymous, “Red Scare”).  The United States was so against communism that they resorted to certain persecution methods of suspected communists that were not necessarily legal.  This is shown through the fact that very little people questioned the governmental actions with regards to communists.  Not only does this show that the U.S. was actively using po ...

1. 1, USA
The Cold War was a geopolitical war that was mostly caused by
the United States. Even though the USSR was a major player in
the world and the Cold War, the United States was more
responsible in starting and escalating the Cold War itself
through containment, continuing the space race, and the Red
Scare. These actions led the USSR to believe that the United
States wanted to go to war with them and the USSR was more
than willing to participate, especially after the victory over
Germany in World War II.
First, containment was a contributing factor to the Cold
War that got the USSR unnecessarily angry at the United
States. Originally the plan of George Kennan, “Containment
provided a conceptual framework for a series of successful
initiatives undertaken from 1947 to 1950 to blunt Soviet
expansion” (Anonymous, “George Kennan and Containment”).
With this idea, Kennan felt that the U.S. should stop the USSR
from expanding its communist influence to other countries that
were not communist countries at that time. While limiting
communism can be seen as a positive action, Russia did not take
too kindly to containment because they wanted to spread
communism to as many places as possible. As a result, they
became irritated with the United States for trying to stop them
from spreading communism which, according to Russia, was
none of the United State’s business. Therefore, by meddling in
Russia’s business with regards to spreading communism the
U.S. gave the impression that they wanted to pick a fight with
the USSR.
Second, the United States made it seem as if they
wanted to overpower Russia when they continued the space
race. When the USSR launched Sputnik into space, “Americans
feared that the world would see the Soviet system as superior,
and many questioned whether the free and open society of 1950s
America was as dominant as they had thought” (Anonymous,

2. “The Space Race and the Cold War”). This fear led them to
furiously attempt to outdo Russia with regards to space
exploration. This resulted in a competition to get humans into
space that only escalated tense relationships between Russia and
the U.S. When Russia realized that the U.S. wanted to
overpower them with regards to space exploration, they
believed that the U.S. was a threat and that they wanted to go to
war.
Finally, the Red Scare was the third and most direct
opposition to communism and the USSR that was associated
with violence. When the U.S. government suspected people of
being communists, “few people dared to criticize the
questionable tactics used to persecute suspected radicals”
(Anonymous, “Red Scare”). The United States was so against
communism that they resorted to certain persecution methods of
suspected communists that were not necessarily legal. This is
shown through the fact that very little people questioned the
governmental actions with regards to communists. Not only
does this show that the U.S. was actively using possibly illegal
persecution methods against communists, but it also shows that
people in the U.S. did not care. When the USSR observed this,
they came to believe that the U.S. wanted to go to war with
them because if they were using questionable persecution
methods against Americans, then for sure the U.S. government
wanted to eradicate communism in the USSR as well with
questionable methods or violence.
Citations:
Anonymous. “George Kennan and Containment”.
https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/kennan
(Links to an external site.)
"The Space Race and the Cold War."
Science and Its Times
, edited by Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer, vol. 7, Gale, 2001.
World History in Context

3. ,
link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CV2643450871/UHIC?u=s0351&x
id=c5ca430d. Accessed 11 Jan. 2017.
Anonymous. “Red Scare”.
http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/red-scare
(Links to an external site.)
. 2010.
2, SU
The Cold War was a global conflict between the United States
and the Soviet Union. Although both countries contribute to the
high tensions during the war, the Soviet Union was ultimately at
fault for starting it and further escalation tensions. Soviet
aggression, as well as their rush to build their weapons, and
their ultimate decision to place missiles in Cuba all contributed
to the Cold War starting and further escalating.
One of the main issues that contributed to why and how
the Cold War started was because of Soviet aggression.
According to the realist explanation, the aggression didn’t even
come from the individual level, but it stemmed from the
aggressive nature of the Soviet society which caused the need
for the Soviets to try and expand their power. Stalin had
occupied Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, all of Eastern Europe and
half of Germany by the time World War II ended, meanwhile
the US was withdrawing troops. Because of the aggressive
nature of Soviet expansion, the US began a policy of
containment in order to check aggressive Soviet actions through
military alliances. Furthermore, the “iron curtain” which was
once only a political divide between the east and the west
became a physical divide as well, when the Soviet Union ct off
access to the east side of the barrier.
Another Soviet act that led to increasing tensions was
setting off the arms race. They did this when they invaded
North Korea because Europe wanted to stop a Soviet invasion
from happening. By invading North Korea, the Soviet Union

4. now had allies in Asia as well which did not sit well with the
rest of Europe. This ultimately led to the creation of the nuclear
bomb. Although both sides were building and testing nuclear
bombs, it was very clear that the United States was very
hesitant to use its full capabilities. For example, the United
States had the capability to Strike the Soviet Union without
having them strike back because their weapons were more
developed. However, because the United State depended on a
strategy called massive retaliation, but didn’t actually follow
through on their threat, they were able to keep the Cold War
from becoming all out war against Russia.
This was further exacerbated during the Cuban Missile
Crisis. In 1962 the Soviets moved nuclear armed ballistic
missiles into Cuba. The only logical reason that could explain
this was because Cuba is very close to the United States and
this because a huge threat to the United States. Again, the
United States had a much bigger advantage when it came to the
arms race, however their policy was to not attack the Soviet
Union because they knew the Soviet Union would attack back so
they did not want to risk it. When the Soviets moved the
missiles to Cuba this could have reached a point of all out war
yet again, however the Soviets realized that the Americans
threat of retaliation this time was credible so they backed down.
Ultimately, the two countries were able to put an end to
the Cold War by working with each other. Although both
countries held responsibility, it was the Soviets who should be
held accountable.
Works Cited:
Nau, Henry R.
Perspectives on International Relations: Power, Institutions, and
Ideas
. Washington, D.C.: CQ, 2007. Print.