Who was to Blame for the Cold War?
Uploaded by loOpz on Dec 08, 2001
I GOT AN A STAR AT GCSE LEVEL FOR THIS ESSAY, ENGLISH SPELLING... HOPE U LIKE...
Everyone’s opinion is different, some say one thing, some say another but the big question is, who was to blame for the Cold War? The United States of America? The Soviet Union? Maybe it was inevitable and bound to happen, but maybe it was partly both of their faults. Could the Cold War have been prevented? There are many points that can argue and back up all of the above opinions. I will be examining different sources and viewpoints in this essay and conclude it with my own and other historian’s opinions.
There are three divisions of western historians when it comes to their opinion on the Cold War, the Traditionalists, the Revisionists and the Post-Revisionists. Each party have their own opinion on who was actually to blame for the Cold War. Traditionalists are historians who believe that the Soviet Union were to blame, Revisionists, who believe that the United States were to blame and Post-Revisionists believe that both the USA and the Soviets were to blame. Each group has reasons for believing what they believe and they will all be argued within this essay.
There are many points that may have triggered the Cold War. Firstly, the history of mistrust between the USA and the Soviet Union that formed after their alliance in World War II. The USSR were scared that their Communist system was under threat from the Capitalists, but the Capitalists thought the same thing about the Communists. Both systems believed that they were doing the right thing. The USSR believed that the West were hostile towards them because of a few points.
- 1919 – USA, Britain and France sent troops across to help the USSR’s opponents.
- 1938 – Stalin believed that there was an indication of Western support to Hitler after the two European countries, Britain and France turned down an Anti-Hitler alliance.
- USSR believed that the British policy of appeasement was a plan to help Hitler.
- 1941 – Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, afterwards, the USA, Britain, France and the Soviet Union fought in an alliance. Stalin urged his allies to launch a second front. The other three countries were not ready to launch such an attack until June 1944v (D-Day.) Stalin thought that the other countries were deliberately waiting for Germany to weaken the Soviet Union before the front was launched.
- The Soviets were not invited...