The Origins of the Cold War

The Cold War was a conflict that dominated the people of Earth for half a decade. The two clashing titans never fought directly with each other on the military level, but both were drawn into conflicts that split the world in to. All of the conflicts of the world, with the exception of those in Africa, from the time period of 1946 through 1989, were in some war effected by, or a product of the clash of opposite ideologies that we call the Cold War. The key to understanding the role that the two ideologies played throughout the Cold War lies in the conflicts that occurred both before and after World War Two. Such events as the World War One, Russian Civil War, and the Munich Agreement helped fuel the rival ideologies’ anger that would lead to the Cold War. The role of the ideologies can also be found in the paths that the leaders of Great Britain, Russia, and the United States took. Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech, Harry Truman’s Doctrine, and Stalin’s policy towards Eastern Europe after the Second War all created turbulence that shook up the worlds diplomacy enough to split the world in two. The Cold War was all about ideologies, and the roles they played were extremely significant. For half a decade, the fate of the world hung at a balance between these two superpowers, and a couple times, the balance came very close to tipping.
In 1917, the Entente forces (Great Britain, France, U.S.A., Russia) fighting in World War One were devastated when turmoil in the heart of Russia broke out, and the Newly Formed Russian Communist Government pulled out of the war with Germany by appeasing their neighbors with the agreed Brest-Litovisk Treaty. Because of this sudden act of what the other Entente forces viewed as cowardice, the Russian’s were not paid back for their immense sacrifice after the war was over, while the others were reaping the benefits of victory. This caused the capitalist governments of the West to forge negative preconceptions about Communist Russia.... [continues]

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