The United States and the Beginning of the Cold War

There were several events that lead up to the Cold War. In 1943, the Greek communist is defeated. The Yalta Conference and Postdam Conference escalated tensions. Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech happened on March 5, 1946. Marshall's Plan happened in 1947-1951. Truman Doctrine happened March 12, 1947. In 1948 Communist takes over Czechoslovakia.

The U.S. Cold War began shortly after WW II. The two world superpowers, the Soviet Union and the U.S., wanted to spread their own form of government. The Soviet Union wanted to spread communism to the “satellite nations” under its control, while the U.S. wanted to spread democracy to the newly created zones in Europe. NATO was created by North American countries to deter the Soviet Union from attempting to invade Western Europe. In retaliation to the creation of NATO, the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact with its Eastern satellite nations. Both alliances were created to deter the other from trying to influence nations under their spheres of influences, and during the Cuban Missile

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 United States developed into a world super power following World War II. Many of the Allies were deeply affected by the war financially and were struggling, thus leaving a vacuum that needed to be filled. The United States was thrust into the position of “policing” and assisting nations around the world. The Cold War was in many ways a psychological illusion however there were many factors that led to this illusion which were well founded. The Cold War stemmed from a multitude of factors, the difficult war against Nazi’s and Japan, Stalin behaviors were not trustworthy, Berlin blockade, Poland puppet government, the fall of China, the build up of arms and the birth nuclear weapons all fed fear-based anti-communist policies. In

By 1945, the end of World War II was soon arriving and the tension between the United States and the Soviet Union had grew stronger(Britannica). Because of the hostility between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Soviets had created a “left-wing” government, in which politicians support social equality in contrast to social hierarchy. Americans and British had feared Soviet’s dominating all eastern European. In contrast, the Soviets wanted to maintain their control of eastern Europe to keep them safe from any threats from Germany and to spread communism worldwide. However, the main difference between the United States and the Soviet Union was how they chose to govern their states. While the United States held a democratic

during the Cold War are very strained according to historians. There are a few documents that demonstrate their differences. In document D, Henry Luce states, “Americans were unable to accommodate themselves spiritually and practically to that fact. Hence they have failed to play their part as a world power-a failure which had had disastrous consequences for themselves and for all mankind.” Luce is saying that the USSR is unsure of the American’s ability to keep the power that they have. Luce is on the side of the USSR. In document F, Winston S. Churchill says, “Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist international organization intends to do in the immediate future, or what are the limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytizing tendencies.” What Churchill was trying to say was that whatever the USSR is planning on doing in their future, which causes the U.S to distrust them. In document H, it states, “The Germans were able to carry out the invasion through these countries by reason of the fact that these countries had governments inimical to the Soviet Union.” This piece of evidence shows how the USSR got other countries to carry out their

After the events of World War II, there was growing tension between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1946. This growing tension developed into the Cold War, which would dominate American foreign policy. Foreign policy changed within the beginning years of the Cold War, as both the US and Soviet Union wanted to assert their power without creating international conflict and devastation.

The Cold War was a state of economic, diplomatic, and ideological discord among nations without armed conflict. The Cold War was between the United States and the USSR because these were the two major powers after WWII. Basically, the Cold War was a series of proxy wars that had taken place back in time involving surrounding countries. One of the main causes for Cold War was that the Soviet Union was spreading communism and the United States didn’t like that so they were trying to contain communism. However, in the end they failed. Many events took place in other countries. In Korea, Vietnam, Latin America, and China, communism took over; however, before it did, major wars had taken place. The cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union worsened the condition of countries involved. The Cold War broke countries into two parts that turned against each other, the United States and the Soviet Union used these countries to fight their war and caused a big disturbance to daily life, and the Communist States fought the Non-Communist States; however, the end results of these wars only caused more damage in these countries.

The wartime between 1947 and 1991 is more formally known as the Cold War, which describes the growing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union following World War II. The governmental system that was in place under the Soviet Union followed that of Communism, which was a great fear of Americans, who did not want to see their country fall to that type of government. The largest fear of any democratic society or country during the time period was that communism would grow to take over the country and that the Soviet Union would become the world’s superpower. The United State’s president at the time of the start of the Cold War was Harry Truman, who highly disliked Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, which affected his opinions

After the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II it was apparent that the victors would come out as the new world powers. With the United States and the Soviet Union being the strongest nations of the victorious Allies they were the two countries who emerged as the new world powers but their views varied drastically. The Democratic United States and the Communist Soviets butted heads about each others views and the U.S. wanted to halt the spread of communism so it couldn’t get to the rest of the world. The U.S. adopted a policy of containment to keep communism in the USSR and the other places it had spread. The U.S.’s main goal was to prevent the spread of communism and they did everything

     The Soviet Union and the west also formed political alliances to combat the other side. Western Europe and the United States formed NATO,a military pact. The Soviet Union created a similar pact,the Warsaw Pact, between the states within the Soviet Union. These military coalitions put a greater threat behind the growing conficts by involving more countries. These military alliances were supplemented by two edicts set by the Soviet Union and the United States. The United States issued the Truman Doctrine, which stated that they would support those countries resisting communism. Likewise, the Soviet Union later issued the Brezhnev Doctrine which decreed that the Soviet Union would intervene with force in order to protect communism in its satellites.

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The historian’s belonging to this school see the Truman doctrine from 1947 as the point when the Cold War started. They put the responsibility for the Cold War on the Soviet Union and its expansionist policy. According to them, this is the reason, why Soviets broke promises from the negotiations during the World War II, especially the Yalta agreement. On the other hand, the U.S. politicians wanted to continue the cooperation between the Allies even after the defeat of the Axis. They put a lot of hope to the newly created organization – United Nations – and the principle of collective security. However, the U.S. needed to react to the Soviet aggression in Europe. They adopted the policy of containment. The orthodox scholars view this policy as necessity because without it “the Soviet Union would have become the master of all Europe, instead of only the eastern Europe” .

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