Causes Of The Cold War Essay

Even though the United States and Russia (Soviet Union) were friendly during World War II, they started having disagreements after World War II ended. First, the Soviet Union thought the United States entered World War II too late. Also, the Soviet Union started to enlarge their territory into Eastern Europe after World War II, which made the United States a little afraid because they thought the Soviet Union was trying to control the world. The Soviet Union set up communist governments in Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. As a result, the United States started to build more weapons.

This illustration shows NATO as a threat to the Soviet Union. NATO was a military alliance of non-communist countries such as the United States. NATO was formed to oppose communism and the Soviet Union. To protect themselves, the Soviet Union created buffer zones to create a border between them and Western countries. This also gave the Soviets more allies since most of Eastern Europe was turned communist.

Capitalist versus communist countries, i.e. the Western Bloc versus the Eastern Bloc were linking to the events dominating the politics of the world the Cold War. In the aftermath of World War II, the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union governed the tension surrounding communist growth and fears. These two nations had become the new superpowers, with the communist Soviet Union heading an ‘Eastern Bloc’ of countries and the capitalist United States heading a ‘Western Bloc’. In 1947, the United States declared a new policy to check the growing power of communism; ‘to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation [complete control] by armed minorities or by outside pressure’. The conflict between the Eastern and Western blocs became known as the Cold War. It centred

We did this through the Marshall Plan (Background essay) and by aiding Berlin (Document B). The Marshall Plan came shortly after the Truman Doctrine. The Marshall Plan gave more than 12,000,000,000 dollars to rebuilding places like France and West Germany, who were European democracies. In 1948 the U.S and her allies risked a communist blockade to deliver supplies to Berlin (Document B). This example was chosen because it shows how much we were willing to spend on containment.

Gaddis discusses the impact that these countries had in Europe and their clashing. This discussion is more of a cause and effect. When the Soviet Union blockaded Berlin, the United States responded with the Berlin Airlift. After this, the Soviet Union, wanted to expand their territory, and the United States responded with their Containment policy. This policy is important and plays a role throughout the Cold War. USSR had a sphere of influence that was growing and the United States wanted to stop this. The threat was valid because countries in Europe were weak after World War II and the United States did not want countries to elect a communist leader. In this case, the leaders would vote in the manner that Moscow wanted them to and this was a threat to World security. So, the United States implemented another policy. This policy

Instead of the U.S. and the Soviet Union fighting head on, they competed by controlling and influencing other countries(Jeffery, Riley, 4). The U.S. affiliated themselves with West Berlin just like the Soviets associated themselves with Cuba. It escalated to nuclear tension when the U.S. placed weapons in Turkey and Italy(The Choices Program). The U.S had many more missiles than the Soviets had at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. They also produced missiles much faster than the Soviets. The Soviet Union knew these disadvantages and were very aware of what the U.S. could do(Schwarz).

The Union of Soviet Socialists Republics (USSR) and the United States of America both play a role in the intensity of the Cold War. Stalin`s sole purpose was to dominate not only the East, but the world in communism. Domineering Eastern Europe was only the beginning for him. Although the USSR was a bit aggressive, their expansionism was successful transforming surrounding nations into communist countries. Russia`s influence became so strong that the “Iron curtain had come down in Europe.”

“It is clear that fear, greed and revenge were the major factors that caused the Cold War” How far do you agree with this statement when analyzing the causes of the Cold War up to 1949?

The Cold War was caused by several events. The first of the nine events was the yalta conference. The yalta conference was held on 4th February through the 11th 1945. The main discussion was the future of poland, it was decided that poland would be divided and much of the

At the onset of the cold war, the world was rapidly developing into two hostile camps, one dominated by the west – most particularly by the US – and the other by the USSR. The two superpowers differed only by ideology, the US with capitalism and the USSR with communism, but both sought to aggressively spread their ideologies and expand their spheres of influence to other sovereign nations. No means was spared in this expansion, the use of military force, moral and economic pressure and security blocs were all commonly used to subjugate other nations. After World War Two, Europe was sufficiently polarized, any further expansion along the preset borders of East and West

In addition, the Cold War was massively impacted because of NATO. In fact, NATO was one of the reasons that the Cold War has started, because the Soviet Union wouldn’t remove their troops from Europe, and France, the USA, and the UK allied with 8 other countries to make the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, aka NATO. In retaliation, the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact, which in turn, made the US start stockpiling nuclear arms in case of a war, and that made the Soviets do

Francis Gary Powers had been on a top secret mission. He was told to fly over Soviet

When trying to figure out the factors that lead to the cause of the Cold War, it is best to look at other factors as well. It is best to look at both the Soviet Union and the USSR's policies and plan. For example, the United States held true to their idea of Capitalism while also being cautious of Soviet Communism. When Europe was in desperate need to rebuild after World War II, The United States made monumental moves to prevent the spread of Communism as seen with the passing of the Marshall Plan which had been a reaction to the coup in Czechoslovakia. The Marshall plan was designed to give immediate economic help to Europe. There was a confliction of deciding whether or not to allow the Soviets to join the plan or to exclude them. This aspect was solved by setting down strict criteria to qualify for American economic aid. This incident allowed the United States to investigate the financial records of applicant countries. However, the USSR would never tolerate this condition. The United States wanted to invite the USSR to join the Marshall Plan. The aim of the Marshall Plan was to revive European working economies so that political and social stability could ensue, and the other aim of the Marshall Plan was to safeguard the future of the U.S. economy. The Soviet reaction the the Marshall Plan was not very well. The Soviets rejected the Marshall Plan. The Soviets saw this as a prime example of American ¨dollar imperialism.¨ In other words, the Soviets

The origin of the Cold War began with the Russian Revolution in nineteen-seventeen, which created a Soviet Russia. The Soviet Russia did not have the same economic and ideological state as the United States. The Civil war in Russia in which Western powers unsuccessfully intervened, dedicated to the spreading of communism. This fueled an environment of mistrust and fear between Russia and the rest of Europe. The United States pursued a policy of isolationism; however the situation

A major aspect of this time frame was a race for power between the Soviet Union and the United States. The countries in each bloc allied with either the United States or the Union. The Soviet Union was lead of the Eastern Bloc and its allies were called the satellite states, Central and Eastern European countries. While the United States was the Western Bloc, with its NATO, North Atlantic Alliance, allies of France and the United Kingdom. All nations were power hungry, but leaned on America and the Soviet Union to lead the way to greatness. This began the fight