Who was more to blame for the Cold War?
Soviets and Americans had always being in constant competition since its beginnings, although it wasn’t recognized worldwide, and it was about time that the competition would turn official. In this essay we will talk about the ideological differences between USA and USSR. In the second paragraph we will talk about the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, and finally in the last argument we will talk about the Berlin Blockade. I believe that there was no one to blame for the Cold War, because both countries were the reason of the war.
There were long seeded differences between the United States and the Soviet Union over ideologies. The U.S.S.R followed the ideology of communism, which was originally
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The first time the US was involved publicly in an international conflict was in Greece by 1947. After Germany left Greece, the country was in chaos and the government displaced. The monarchs and the communists were fighting in order to see who of them would remain in power, so the British entered in Greece in order to fight communism, but as they didn't have enough money they left the country. After this, the US offered to pay the cost of war and help the monarchs, so after that they sent 400 million dollars to help Greece, and to avoid them from becoming a communist state, because Greece and Czechoslovakia were the only countries that weren’t controlled by the Communists. After all this, Truman was convinced that he should help stop Communism, so that way the Truman Doctrine was born, and it stated that the USA would help any country in the fight against Communism. If communism keeps spreading their ideology, they could easily take-over the world. That is why the Truman doctrine stated to promote democracy. One of the ways to defeat communism was to rebuilt Europe, that way if the Americans helped all the poor people, they would no longer need communism. This idea was turned down by the congress because the cost was too high. But when the communists took Czechoslovakia and a pro-American minister, Jan Masaryk, was found dead, the congress approved the …show more content…
After the war, the zones of Germany were in economic chaos. Stalin feared a recovering Germany and wanted to keep it crippled. But the Allies couldn’t feed its people if it wasn’t allowed to rebuild Germany. USA, France and Britain combined there zones in 1946, which was called Trizonia, but became known as West Germany. In 1948 they reformed the currency, and within months there were signs that Germany was recovering, according to the IGCSE history book. Stalin felt that the USA’S handling of western Germany was provocative. So in June, 1948 he had planned to starve the people of West Berlin, so they would need to choose communism. Stalin closed off all roads and railway systems that led into West Berlin which was run by the Western allies. To get to West Berlin, one would have to pass through East Germany ran by the USSR. This closing of the roads and railway systems to West Berlin was done in an effort to cease the transportation of goods to West Berlin resulting in the people being starved. This was therefore the blockade of Berlin. The only way into Berlin was by air, so in June, 1948 the Allies decided to air-lift supplies, according to the IGCSE History book, on page 89. Everyone feared that the Soviets would shoot them out, which would have been an act of war, but no shots were fired. The planes got
In the year 1961, the building of Berlin Wall called upon disasters in Germany. United States controlled the west of Berlin while German Democratic Republic held the East. Being stuck under the rule of day to day terror, people from East Berlin were making their way to the West Berlin. West Berlin was a safe spot and freedom checkpoint in the middle of terror. To stop the moving of East Berliners, the East German government decided to build a barrier that limited and halted the East Berliners from leaving. But the battle to control Berlin between, the United States and the Soviet Union, had been taking place since after the division of Germany. The German Democratic Republic wanted better control over its people to spread its communist ideas
“Was Truman Responsible for the Cold War”, well, according to author Arnold A. Offner, his simplistic answer is an obvious “yes.” “Taking Sides” is a controversial aspect of the author’s interpretation for justifying his position and perception of “Truman’s” actions. This political approach is situated around the “Cold War” era in which the author scrutinizes, delineates, and ridicules his opponents by claiming “I have an ace in the hole and one showing” (SoRelle 313). Both authors provide the readers with intuitive perceptions for their argumentative approaches in justifying whether or not “Truman” contributed to the onset of the “Cold War.” Thus far, it would be hard-pressed to blame one single individual, President or not, for the “Cold War” initiation/s. Information presented show the implications centered on the issues leading up to the Cold War”, presents different ideologies of two Presidents involving policy making, and a national relationship strained by uncooperative governments. However, evidence that is presented may indicate otherwise as Joseph Stalin provides adequate counter claims for discrediting the “simplicity” of “yes”.
Discussions of the causes of the Cold War are often divisive, creating disparate ideological camps that focus the blame in different directions depending on the academic’s political disposition. One popular argument places the blame largely on the American people, whose emphasis on “strength over compromise” and their deployment of the atomic bomb in the Second World War’s Pacific theatre apparently functioned as two key catalysts to the conflict between US and Soviet powers. This revisionist approach minimizes Stalin’s forceful approach and history of violent leadership throughout World War 2, and focuses instead on President Harry Truman’s apparent insensitivity to “reasonable Soviet security anxieties” in his quest to impose “American interests on the world.” Revisionist historians depict President Truman as a “Cold War monger,” whose unjustified political use of the atomic bomb and ornery diplomatic style forced Russia into the Cold War to oppose the spread of a looming capitalist democratic monopoly. In reality, Truman’s responsibility for the Cold War and the atomic bomb drop should be minimized.
The political ideologies of the USA and of the Soviet Union were of profound significance in the development of the Cold War. Problems between the two power nations arose when America refused to accept the Soviet Union in the international community. The relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union was filled with mutual distrust and hostility. Many historians believe the cold war was “inevitable” between a democratic, capitalist nation and a communist Union. Winston Churchill called the cold war “The balance of terror” (1). Cold war anxieties began to build up with America and the Soviet Union advancing in the arms race for world dominance and supremacy. America feared the spread of Communism
The Varying Intensity of the Cold War in Europe The German surrender on the 7th May 1945 marked the end of the Second World War in Europe and heralded the beginning of a new conflict. This conflict would develop into the Cold War between the two largest countries in the world at the end of the Second World War, the United States of America (USA) and The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR). This essay will examine the Cold War from a European perspective. It is important to examine the Cold War from a European Perspective because within Europe the USA's and the USSR's spheres of influence had a physical border.
At the end of WWII, the United States, Great Britain, and France occupied the western zone of Germany while the Soviet Union occupied the east. In 1948, Britain, France, and the U.S. combined their territories to make one nation. Stalin then discovered a loophole. He closed all highway and rail routes into West Berlin. This meant no food or fuel could reach that part of the city. In an attempt to break the blockade, American and British officials started the Berlin airlift. For 327 days, planes carrying food and supplies into West Berlin took off and landed every few minutes. West Berlin might not have made it if it wasn’t for the airlift. By May 1949, the Soviet Union realized it was beaten and lifted the blockade. By using the policy of containment, the Americans and the British were able to defeat the Soviets.
There have been many attempts to explain the origins of the Cold War that developed between the capitalist West and the communist East after the Second World War. Indeed, there is great disagreement in explaining the source for the Cold War; some explanations draw on events pre-1945; some draw only on issues of ideology; others look to economics; security concerns dominate some arguments; personalities are seen as the root cause for some historians. So wide is the range of the historiography of the origins of the Cold War that is has been said "the Cold War has also spawned a war among historians, a controversy over how the Cold War got started, whether or not it was inevitable, and (above all) who bears the main responsibility for starting it" (Hammond 4). There are three main schools of thought in the historiography: the traditional view, known alternatively as the orthodox or liberal view, which finds fault lying mostly with the Russians and deems security concerns to be the root cause of the Cold War; the revisionist view, which argues that it is, in fact, the United States and the West to blame for the Cold War and not the Russians, and cites economic open-door interests for spawning the Cold War; finally, the post-revisionist view which finds fault with both sides in the conflict and points to issues raised both by the traditionalists as well as the revisionists for combining to cause the Cold War. While strong arguments are made by historians writing from the traditionalist school, as well as those writing from the revisionist school, I claim that the viewpoint of the post-revisionists is the most accurate in describing the origins of the Cold War.
War is an idea that has existed since the dawn of humanity, and with every war there are goals and motives, the Cold War is no different. The turmoil of the first World War in set the global stage for the future of relations between the United States, Russia, Britain and other countries. As the Russian civil war grew fiercer, allied forces, including U.S. forces, laid foot on Russian soil, at which point things took a turn for the worst. The Cold War was a war of competition, in every sense of the word; and although both the United States and the Soviet Union were teetering-tottering on the brink of war for many years after the first World War, ultimately the United States is to blame for initiation of the Cold War, as the United States adjusted
President Stalin saw the US strategy to rebuild Europe as a way to weaken Soviet influence in that region. This led to the aggressive struggle to take over control of Germany, which led to the divide of Germany. German Capital, Berlin took the hardest hit. The city was divided into the East and West. Soviets were in control of the East while the West was controlled by the Americans, British and French. West Berlin enjoyed more liberal civil and democratic freedom than their counterparts in East Berlin. Again the US and its allies were able to aggressively block any form of communist insurgencies into those areas by providing massive supply of food and other necessities for West Germany in what was known as the Berlin Airlift. This eventually led to the formation of East Germany in
Even though Berlin lay deep within the Soviet sector, the Allies thought it would be the best to divide this capital. Therefore Berlin was also divided into four parts. Since the Soviet Union was in control of the eastern half of Germany, they made East Berlin the capital of East Germany. The other three counties were each in control of a small part of what was to be West Germany. The Allies decided that they would come together to form one country out of their three divided parts. Those three divided parts formed West Germany. After all the land was divided the Soviet Union controlled East Germany. Just like the Soviet Union, the economy in East Germany was struggling to get back on its feet after the war. While West Berlin became a lively urban area like many American cities, East Berlin became what many thought of as a ‘Mini-Moscow’. In East Germany there was literary almost nothing. The shelves in the stores were practically bare, and what was there was not in very good quality.
Prior to the construction of the Berlin Wall, boarders between East and West Germany were closed in 1952 because of tension between Communists and Democratic superpowers and the only open crossing left in Berlin. West Germany was blockaded by the Soviets and only kept alive because of air drops made by the Western Allies (Time). The Soviets had to do something about the mass amount of people leaving Soviet East Berlin for West Berlin, and the non-communist world.
Still bound by very complex regulations, West Berlin began to rebuild in earnest. It was given special treatment by West Germany and by the Allies. Its survival became a symbol of Western commitment against Soviet style communism. Money was pumped in, industries revived, a new University created, since Communist professors and principles dominated the Humboldt University in East Berlin. But the East German Government, certain that West Berlin would eventually fall to them, was richly inventive in tactics of intimidation. Highways were blocked for hours or days at a time, as were canal and rail corridors. Finally, they blockaded the city totally. The Americans - specifically, General Lucius Clay, - invented the Air Lift. For over a year, one B-29 after another flew into Tempelhof Airport and supplied the city until the blockade was lifted.
While, on the other hand, the United States just wanted to stop the spread of communism, which they felt, would spread rapidly throughout the world if they did not put an end to it soon. Both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to avoid WWIII in the process of trying to achieve their goals. The Cold War was failed by the Soviet Union for many reasons, including the sudden collapse of communism (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) This sudden collapse of communism was brought on ultimately by internal factors. Soviet Union president Gorbachev’s reforms: glasnost (openness) and perestroika (political reconstruction) ultimately caused the collapse of the Soviet Empire.
...blockade; he prevented all access to and from East Germany. Access to Berlin from the west was cut off in stages and culminating in the full blockade on June 24, 1948. To support out part of Berlin, the US started airlifting over 5,600 tons of supplies every day over the blockade. Stalin saw the US airlift response to the Berlin blockade as confrontational. The constant pressure from America and the British eventually forced Stalin to end the blockade in 1949. Russia was just defending itself by keeping Germany broken up. The US refused to acknowledge communism as a valid form of government. The US’s biased perspective of communism, tied with their responsibility to manipulate governments and economies all throughout Europe, initiated the Cold War. The US’s actions infuriated the Soviet Union, and their ideology made a global threat in the Soviet Union and communism.
There facts and reasons on why the Cold War happened. The Cold War had two sides. Those two sides were capitalism and communism. Capitalism is that business is owned by private people or firms. It was a free economy that allowed any profit he or she makes is reward for hard work. It also allows that any person should be free to start a business and employ people. Communism is another form of economy. Everything is run by the state and should be run by the government on behalf of the people. No private person is allowed to profit from the work from other citizens. Communism is a controlled economy. All profits don’t go into the pocket of one owner; the pr...