What Are The Causes Of The Cold War

Potsdam, it did not go as well as Yalta. Truman and Stalin were at a

The Cold War was an argument between the Soviet Union and the United States of America after WWII. During WWII the USA and the Soviet Union were allies fighting a common cause; Adolph Hitler who was attempting to overthrow the surrounding countries. Although the USA and the Soviet Union were allies, the relationship between the two countries was very tense (What Was). Neither country trusted the other.

The Cold war was a sustained state of military and political tension between powers of two dominating powers from opposite sides of the globe. One from the Western Bloc, or Capitalist Bloc, dominated by the United States (U.S) and the other from the Eastern Block, or Communist Bloc, powered by the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R). Obviously both very different, the opposing ideas of the superpowers supported the spread of their respective and economic systems and strengthened their military powers. As a result, the two sides developed new weapon systems, stockpiled nuclear weapons, and competed in space exploration. But what actually caused these tensions between the two? How come their differences in ideology made it impossible to cooperate?

The most debilitating intentional force to America’s economy in the 20th Century was the Cold War. The Cold War was a political war that was fought between the United States and the Soviet Union that was really Capitalism v. Communism. Both nations wanted to spread their political ideology across the globe and both succeeded in their own way until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was the largest military build up the world has ever seen. As Journalist David Remnick put it, “The Cold War was wildly expensive and consumed the entire globe.” There was never directed fighting between the Soviet Union and the United States, but there were wars against communism developed in Korea and Vietnam by the U.S., along with various undercover

The cold war was a conflict between capitalist’s nations and communist nations following World War 2. The main reason the Cold War was started was over an ideological power struggle between atheistic communism and democratic capitalism. The principle players were the former Soviet Union (Communism) and the United States (Capitalism). The Cold War began in 1948 after Germany was divided between the western allies and the Soviets. What motivates a nation to become involved in world affairs is the idea of wanting other nations to adopt the same form of government.

In this essay I would like to highlight my understanding for the causes of the cold war. In fact, "the cold war" called in that name because of the struggle which is followed the World War II between superpowers: US & USSR. Both of sides work hard to widen their potency and narrowed the conflict, but it found overlap in it, which raise the stress and the struggle. The struggle lengthened from the end of the of second world war, middle of 1940s to the end of 1980s in 20th century, and the result was USSR collapsed in 1991, end of the cold war. The aim of this essay is to draw the attention to the people who don't aware that the fundamental cause of the cold war was a clash of ideologies between the superpowers, because of increased the radices of ideologies of this war and many historians negotiate for the causes. First of all, I started with the structure of the cold war (the origins of the cold war). During this section I argued that why the conflict started?, and who was the inciter? to be the introduction of the causes. Secondly, I would be deeper to prove the cause, so I would argue about some schools of thought, the orthodox or traditionalist thinkers who blamed the Soviet for the confrontation and give some historians views to prove this school. Thirdly, another school declared (revisionist people) who thought that the cause was US because of the Soviet looses which the Soviet suffered during the war. In addition, I analyzed some historian's suggestions for Truman. Forth point and final school (post-revisionist people) and they thought that both of sides played part in the escalation of the conflict. Finally, I would give my typical answer for the question and prove my ideas which I reached to the actual cause of the cold wa...

The dictionary defines war as, a state or period of armed hostility or active military operations. This definition does not hold true for the Cold War however. The phrase cold shoulder is used to express the act of disregarding someone or thing. This idea better sets the stage for the Cold War which was a period of tension, not armed hostility, between two world powers, The United States of America and The USSR, who both were wishing to disregard the others ideology, capitalism and communism. Many would argue that the Cold War was simply inevitable due to the opposing ideologies but, there are many things to look at when considering the cause. One must first start at the end of World War II and then look at some important documents that followed; Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech and Stalin’s response, The Truman Doctrine, and the Marshall Plan.

Many think the cold war was an actual war fought with guns and bloodshed. Those who think that are wrong; most of the war was all verbal threats. The countries involved were scared of each other; reason being because their opponents were threatening them about chemical warfare. The main cause of the cold war are from chaotic clashes of two radical ideological beliefs; Communism and Capitalism.

The tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union grew after one of the biggest wars ever fought, World War II, ended. The Cold War started in the mid 1940’s and ended around 1991. The war was fought by the two superpowers in the world, the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the two countries were never directly at war with one another, there were always tensions between them. Ending the Cold War was not in anyone’s agenda until the Soviet Union’s new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, came into rule. Mikhail Gorbachev was one of the most important figures within the Cold War because he helped the war itself come to an end, and he removed the constitutional role of the communist party.

The Cold War was America’s longest war with the start of it being at the end of World War II when the Japanese formally surrendered on September 2, 1945 and did not officially end until the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26. 1991 (Cold War Veterans, n.d) The Cold War was not typical of what we normally think of as war there was no attack on another’s country that led the other to declare war it was simply a period of time when the United States and the Soviet Union (USRR) resented one another. The Soviet Union resented the United States for our long refusal to treat them as a legitimate part of the international community as well as our delayed entry into World War II, which resulted in the death of million of Russians (History, n.d) After WWII when the Soviets invaded and took control many Eastern Europe countries, Americans began to worry that the Russians were trying to gain control of the world. Americans had long been fearful of Soviet communism and the way their leader Joseph Stalin’s ran their country. The Cold War included events such as the Cuban Missile ...

Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signified, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold but not clothed." There was never a war that this idea can be more correct applied to than the Cold War. According to noted author and Cold War historian Walter Lippman, the Cold War can be defined as a state of tension between states, which behave with great distrust and hostility towards each other, but do not resort to violence. The Cold War encompasses a period from the end of the Second World War (WWII), in 1945, to the fall of the Soviet Union, in 1989. It also encompassed the Korean and Vietnam Wars and other armed conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, that, essentially, were not wars for people but instead for territories and ideologies. "Nevertheless, like its predecessors, the Cold War has been a worldwide power contest in which one expanding power has threatened to make itself predominant, and in which other powers have banded together in a defensive coalition to frustrate it---as was the case before 1815, as was the case in 1914-1918 as was the case from 1939-1945" (Halle 9). From this power contest, the Cold War erupted.

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 influence and sustaining stability throughout these regions.