Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Who was more to blame for starting the Cold War: the USA or the USSR? -…
Who was more to blame for starting the Cold War: the USA or the USSR?
Arguments for USA to blame:
At Yalta Roosevelt did not define what was meant by a sphere of influence - Stalin saw it as total control over the East but the USA only wanted Russia to have an influence.
Tested the atom bomb in 1945 caused tension between the two countries
Truman was even more anti-Communist and suspicious of Stalin
Truman Doctrine - America sending money and supplies to stop the spread of Communism - seen as unfair and offensive
Marshall Aid - America gave money to rebuild Europe and prevent people wanting Communism as an alternative - made Stalin suspicious
Berlin Blockade - airlifting the supplies was seen by Stalin as a form of confrontation
Roosevelt also showed a lack of trust in Stalin.
Roosevelt allowed Russia to move border into Poland as long as Russia did not interfere with Greece
USSR thought the appeasement in 1930s was a plan to allow Germany to expand eastwards intead of westwards
USSR had been invaded three times in fifty years
USSR mistrusted the US since they hadn't shared the atomic bomb with the Great Alliance and hadn't opened a second front to relieve pressure from the red army in Germany
NATO was set up for collective security which upset Russia who issued a statement of warning of consequences of military alliance in the West
Arguments for Russia to blame:
At Yalta Russia insisted border moved into Poland despite America not agreeing at first.
Cominform and Comecon were set up to co-ordinate communist governments and industries. This was seen as a threat by the USA as it excluded the West
The Berlin Blockade was provocative and angered the USA who saw it as a threat to freedom.
The Warsaw pact was also seen as a threat by the USA
Took over the government in countries that were freed from German control.
Red Army present and Communist government was set up in Poland which was against Yalta
democracy wasn't important to Stalin, he just wanted friendly goverments bordering USSR as a buffer
Stalin's personality was to be obsessed and paranoid with his country's security and defense
He wouldn't allow liberated countries to be anti-Soviet
Unlike all the other leaders, Stalin was constantly in power
European countries had a choice to join the Marshall Plan contrary to Stalins taveover in Eastern Europe
Truman Doctrine was a defensive reaction to developments in Turkey and Greece
Arguments they were both to blame
Leaders were suspicious of each other - lacked trust
They were only interested in their own interests
They had so many ideological differences they were bound not to get along
Both involved in the Berlin Blockade and Airlift
Had disagreements at Summit conferences (Yalta and Potsdam). Some areas should have been resolved better to avoid disagreement at a later date