who was most to blame for the cold war? essay sample

The Cold War was the tense relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) during the 46-year period following the World War II’s end, but before the end of the Soviet Union. It refers to the time between 1945 and 1991. The war was unlike any other war, because the two countries’ armies never directly went to war with each other. Many people feared that the relations would end in a nuclear war, but that never happened. The meaning of ‘ Cold War’ is a war in which there is no fighting, but its mainly threatening and verbal insults. There are two possibilities verdicts; the USA and the USSR. Both these sides had different beliefs, USA was a capitalist country while the USSR was a communist, and this was one of the main causes of the Cold War. I believe that both sides were however I think the USSR may be blamed more than the USA as you will see in the arguments followed.

We can argue that USA was to blame for the Cold War. At the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt did not define well what he said about the “ Sphere of Influence” (He mean that Germany have to be divided into 4 occupation zones). Stalin thinks about this and saw this as a total control over the East by the USA. The second argument could be that USA tested the atomic bomb, and this cause tension between the USA and the USSR, because they feared that some of these 2 countries will drop a bomb some day. Finally, The Truman Doctrine (America sending money and supplies to a country in danger of a communist take-over) and the Marshall Aid (America giving money to prevent people to like communism) was seen as “ Unfair” and made Stalin suspicious.

On the other hand, we can argue that the USSR was to blame for the Cold War. At Yalta Conference, Stalin wanted the border of the USSR to move westwards into Poland. Stalin argued that Poland could move its border westwards into German territory. Roosevelt first doesn’t accept this, but then he was convinced by Churchill. Secondly, another argument could be that Stalin did not take his troops out from Eastern Europe. People feared a communist take-over because of this. Also, after some time, he set up a communist government in Poland.