Cold War
Q: How far do you agree that the Cold War broke out because Soviet and Western leaders misinterpreted each other's words and actions?The Cold War was a period of tension and hostility between the West and Soviet Union [SU], the origins of which dates back to 1917. However the Cold War officially began after the Second World War and continued for much of the post war period. The West and SU had been suspicious of each other's motives since 1917 when the SU was formed. Their ideological differences led them to misinterpret each other's actions, which led to the escalation of hostility and competition. The Cold War originated through a series of events that took place because of the fact that each side misinterpreted the other's actions. Hence it is evident that the Cold War broke out because Soviet and Western Leaders misinterpreted each other's words and actions to a large extent.Since the Communist style of government is fundamentally at odds with Democratic-Capitalist governments and traditional monarchies, the West saw Communist Russia as a direct threat to their political structures. With Lenin setting up the Comintern in 1919, the West felt that the SU was expansionist and bent upon spreading world co
This increased US suspicion of SU as it confirmed SU's power hungry image. Here the SU misinterpreted US actions as secular and an attempt to form a non-communist Germany. Their definition of "free elections" varied considerably from the Democratic perception. Because of all this, they launched the Berlin Blockade to get back at the West for launching the Marshall plan and were hoping for the west to withdraw from West Germany. However, the Berlin Blockade came off as offensive attack on the West and was misinterpreted as an expansionist attempt by the USSR. Stalin also wanted to fix Germany's border at the Ode-Neisse line to give Poland [which was under Soviet influence] more territory. The SU reacted by not joining the World Bank and IMF. This shows how the US misinterpreted SU actions and reacted strongly against the SU. Truman highlighted Soviet dependence on US aid by canceling the lend-lease agreement that the SU used to rebuild its shattered economy. By doing this, the US hoped that the poorer nations would not fall to communism. SU felt compelled to increase its control over its zone in Germany and extract more resources there. The events related to the US's successful development of the Atomic Bomb accounted for the worsening of US-SU relations that led to the outbreak of the Cold War. This denied the SU the opportunity of establishing their influence in East Asia although it was agreed at Yalta that the SU would be involved in the liberation of Japan. Stalin misinterpreted US actions as "dollar diplomacy" in which the US was using its financial superiority to dominate Soviet economic affairs. The Soviet Actions in Iran were seen as expansionist by the US.
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