At the end of WW2 Germany had fallen and Hitler was no longer a threat to the ‘Big 3’, this included Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill and F.D Roosevelt. They had agreed between them that they would split Germany up into the three and each section would belong to one of the members of the Big 3. This however wasn’t as easy as it seemed as they each had different views on how Germany should be treated. Roosevelt and Churchill believed that Germany should be reformed, whereas Stalin believed in oppression and believed that Germany should be punished for what they have done. This eventually led to Stalin not feeling as though he could trust Britain and the USA as he believed that they wanted to destroy the Soviet Union.
When the war had finished, the once so strong Soviet Union ended up being economically ruined. The whole of Western Russia had been ruined and used for wasteland. There were millions of homeless people left for nothing as their houses had been destroyed by this war. They were without shelter and had no clothes or food.
The USSR was responsible for the outbreak of the cold war because they were shown to not be trustworthy. “Stalin had agreed at Yalta to the principle of free elections, but events were soon to show his interpretation of ‘free’ was at variance of that of the West” , this shows Stalin to not be trusted as he doesn’t do what he said he would. It was also clear that Britain and the USA were against Stalin. They believed that if it was Stalin leading the Soviet Union then it would almost be impossible to not have a cold war. “As long as Stalin was running the Soviet Union, a cold war was unavoidable” this shows that Stalin was not seen as a peacekeeper but in fact someone who wanted a war of a kind. Stalin also demanded that all governments in Eastern Europe were to be friendly towards the Soviet Union “To Stalin no government in eastern Europe could be tolerated unless it was one friendly towards the Soviet Union” this point as said by Steve Phillips, who wrote Cold War in 2001 and is a historian, shows how Stalin was happy to limit which governments were able to have
The Yalta Conference was the second wartime meeting. The meeting involved British Prime Minister Churchill, Soviet Leader Stalin, and President Roosevelt. The leaders together agreed that they would make Germany surrender and that they would now require Germany to be split into four zones. These four zones would be occupied by the USA, Britain, France and Russia. Yalta became controversial as Stalin had broken his promise about the free election’s which he promised. He instead had installed governments which were dominated by the Soviet Union. The idea of the Yalta Conference was that Stalin could have a ‘Sphere of influence’ over Eastern Europe, but that all of the countries in Eastern Europe would be allowed to hold free elections and be able to decide for themselves who they would be governed by. Stalin broke this promise which then led to the West feeling a lack of trust from Stalin.
At the London Conference it became clear that there was still a stalemate between the East and West. Stalin expected the West to separate its spheres of influence in Europe. He justified actions in Eastern Europe as a matter of national security as the pre-war governments gad been very much anti-communist. The issue started when Stalin believed that Germany should be punished and split up into quarters and given to USA, Britain, France and Russia. However, it was the USA’s idea to split up Berlin which fell into Russia’s section, this angered Stalin as he believed that he should be given Berlin.
When Stalin pressed the Soviet claim to Northern Iran and the Black sea straits, it appeared to confirm a Soviet threat to the wider world. Stalin’s interest in Iran was border security and oil in particular. The oil was vital to be able to recover the crumbling soviet economy. However, Iran granted oil concessions to Britain, similar oil concessions were denied to the Soviet Union. This also showed Stalin to be a threat as he tried to claim the Northern Iran and the Black Sea straits, this showed the West that Stalin wasn’t stopping to gain controls of countries. This also scared the US as they believed in the domino theory that other countries bordering with a soviet state would fall to communism if they weren’t careful. This was the worst thing for the US as they really disliked communism.
Primary evidence
George Kennan famously said in the 1946 Long Telegram “Communists will, as a rule, work toward destruction of all forms of personal independence, economic political or moral”. Kennan was the American charge of affairs in Moscow. This is significant as it shows the Soviets to be aggressive as they do not want to keep the peace around the world. “destruction” shows that the Soviets are willing to remove all of the populations rights by not allowing them their personal independence which they deserve. Stalin is also presented as being the aggressive when Churchill says, “The Soviet Union has become a danger to the free world”. As Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union it was him who made it aggressive. As Churchill was alive during WW2 and the cold war his view can be seen as accurate as he saw it with his own eyes. Churchills view could be true as he was a member of the big three and attended conferences with Stalin and saw how he was and knew if his plans were dangerous. Harry Truman who was the US president said “We have to get tough with the Russians. They don’t know how to behave”, this was said in April 1945. This shows Stalin being a threat as it was clear that they were getting out of hand. The Russians didn’t follow the rules set out by the United Nations so therefore it showed them as not being keen on the keeping of peace. The fact that they’re not behaving could suggest that they are not willing to follow westernisation as they have their ideas about certain aspects of running a country which Truman clearly disagreed with.
The USSR wasn’t responsible for the outbreak of the cold war because it was shown that America was aggressive towards the Soviet Union. RK Herrmann said that “It could be argued; Soviet foreign policy was driven by defensive considerations in response to US actions”, this shows that it was the USA’s actions which caused the Soviet Union to become hostile. This also shows that the USSR was driven by the USA to act in some of their ways, thus showing that they weren’t entirely to blame for the cause of the cold war. It is also evident that the USA was very harsh on the Soviet Union, when perhaps it shouldn’t have been. This can be seen when it says, “Truman lacked confidence in dealing with the USSR and, worried that previous US policy had been too ‘soft’ on Stalin”. This was said by Steve Philips who is the author of ‘The Cold War: Conflict in Europe and Asia’.
The US was aggressive towards the Soviet Union as they really didn’t like communism and failed to see the many positives of it. “The post war situation provided an opportunity to introduce a communist economic system to meet the needs of the people” this shows that communism could’ve brought a positive aspect to Europe as a new way of thinking. However, the USA wouldn’t tolerate this as they believed that communism was the worst thing possible and must be stopped. This also shows that the USA intervened when they didn’t really have too. After WW2 it seemed unfair to create class order in society again. Many people were unemployed and were treated unfairly, communism aimed to remove this. It aimed to allow all Soviet citizens to be treated equally and fairly as they were all earning the same amount of money. However, in a capitalist society it can lead to vast inequality as people with a higher-class education get the better jobs and earn more money whilst those who didn’t have a chance to get a good education are left to suffer through no fault of their own. It seems unfair to make someone suffer all their life due to the class their family came from.
Another reason for why the USA was aggressive towards the Soviet Union was because the US had their own ideas of a united Europe. This not only led to tensions with the Soviet Union, but also to disagreements between the Western Powers. This was issues with the Marshall plan. The Marshall plan was to act as a connecting element, and also to bind countries to the West. One of the goals of the Marshall plan was to halt the spreading of communism over Europe. The start of the Marshall plan is seen by some as the beginning of the cold war between the US and the Soviet Union. However, not all nations part of the Marshall Plan was treated. The US gave Western Europe over $15 billion in economic assistance in order to help Western Europe rebuild after the end of WW2 which left many countries destroyed. The Marshall Plan aimed to reconstruct cities, industries and infrastructure which was damaged greatly during the war. It also aimed to create more trade as they now had more money to they could afford to trade easier, and also, they wanted to create a bond with Western Europe so that less countries would be inclined to join the communist East. Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan in April 3rd, 1948. After this day aid was then distributed to 16 European nations. These nations in Western Europe included Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, West Germany and Norway. Larger amounts of aid were given to the major industrial powers. The countries included in this were West Germany, Britain and France. They did thus as they believed these are the main countries in the West and if they don’t recover then the rest of Europe will be lacking behind also. Many countries relied on these countries in Europe so without their reform it would hinder the rest of Europe and their recovery. For example, Italy was destroyed after WW2, but as during the war they fought alongside Nazi Germany the amount they received was significantly less. The Marshall Plan refused to take part on the Eastern Bloc of the Soviet States, this further showed the divisions between East and West. William Appleman Williams argues that the US only wanted to keep European countries capitalist as they saw it as an ‘open door’ for trade. Williams was a historian and was known as a revisionist as he believed that the US was to blame for the cause of the cold war. The atomic bomb was used in August 6th, 1945. The bomb was dropped by America on the Japanese city Hiroshima. The bomb killed around 80,000 people instantly. In the years following WW2 the US was the only country to obtain nuclear weapons. The Soviets lacked knowledge and materials to be able to compete with the US on this. This led to the Soviets feeling threatened as they did not have the resources to start to build nuclear weapons and therefore felt that these weapons could be used on them as a means for the US to put an end to their communism. This led to an arms race as in August 29th, 1949 the Soviets had tested their first nuclear weapon which proved to the US that they weren’t as weak as they thought. The Arms Race happened because both countries started competing at who could build the best nuclear weapons. The US used their atomic bomb to intimidate Russia by hiding it from them so that they had no idea about it. They used it to show how powerful they were and to show the Soviets that they really weren’t.
Primary evidence
Quotes from Stalin
Quotes from Mao
Novikov telegram
Argument 3
The cold war was inevitable and had to happen. A historian, Arthur Schlesinger Junior said, “The Cold War was the brave and essential response of free men to communist aggression”. This shows how the cold war had to happen and was inevitable as there was always going to be a war on communism and it needed to happen therefore to prove the US to be correct and to show the difference between the two ideologies. This historian seems to be suggesting that the Cold War had to happen to make sure that communism didn’t go any further, it seems to suggest that the so called ‘free men’ can to make sure that the USSR became ‘free’. John Lewis Gaddis also said, “Both embraced ideologies with global aspirations: what worked at home, their leaders assumed, would also do so for the rest of the world”. This was said in his book ‘The Cold War: A New History’. By this Gaddis seems to be suggesting that both leaders were very naïve as they presumed that their ideology was the best. They had different aspirations and they couldn’t see why the other wouldn’t want what they wanted.