The Causes of the Cold War
The blame for the Cold War cannot be placed on one person - it developed as a series of chain reactions as a struggle for supremacy. It can be argued that the Cold War was inevitable, and therefore no one's fault, due to the differences in the capitalist and communist ideologies. It was only the need for self-preservation that had caused the two countries to sink their differences temporarily during the Second World War. Yet many of the tensions that existed in the Cold War can be attributed to Stalin's policy of Soviet expansion. Therefore, the majority of the blame for the start of the Cold War may be accurately placed on Stalin and his foreign policy. Stalin's foreign policies contributed enormously to the tensions of the Cold War. His aim, to take advantage of the military situation in post-war Europe in order to strengthen Russian influence, was perceived as a threat to the American people. Stalin was quite effective in his goal to gain territory, with victories in Poland, Romania, and Finland . To the western world, this success looked as if it was the beginning of serious Russian aggressions. The western view of the time saw Stalin as doing one of two things: either continuing the expansionist policies of the tsars
It appeared to them that Russia's attitude went against all of the promises that Stalin had made at Yalta -- namely, that Stalin would permit free elections in the eastern European states. It was not enough for astate to be merely communist: it had to adopt the Russian-style communism. "5 From this point, the Cold War truly becomes a chain reaction. The goal was to force western powers from West Berlin by reducing it to point of starvation. What Stalin's actions unarguably did was start a string of chain-reactions within thewestern powers, and therefore, the majority of the blame rests with him. Furthermore, Russia argued that the areas hadnever had democratic governments, and that a communist system would allow these 'backward countries' to progress and flourish. His policy towards Soviet Russia, then, was much more severe than that of Roosevelt. The Russians claim, and have always claimed, that Stalin's motives were purely defensive. Clashes between Stalin and the West first appear at the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences in February and July 1946, respectively. This failure to be included in the Western world's politics created an even deeper rift between the two superpowers. Stalin began to implement a reign of terror using the Russian Army and his secret police force.
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Acceptance Essays
