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Causes of the Cold War Essay

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Causes of the Cold War Essay
“It is clear that fear, greed and revenge were the major factors that caused the Cold War” How far do you agree with this statement when analyzing the causes of the Cold War up to 1949?

The responsibility of the origins of the Cold War often triggers questions among historians yet both powers should be blamed for taking part in it. The origins of the Cold War can often be associated with fear, greed and revenge. Through most analyses, the fault was often given to Stalin’s ambitions to expand communism in Europe, a controversial idea of the Orthodox view. Other historians revised this idea therefore blame the United States actions for the origins of the Cold War, which were analyses of the Revisionist. Later, the Post-revisionist view was adopted; its goal was not to blame any side but focused on examining “what” caused the start of it. The collapse of the good-natured American Soviet relations was most significantly caused by the Soviet Union expanding it borders, violating its allied agreements, and imposing communistic governments on neighboring nations.

Firstly, one of the direct causes of the Cold War was the Yalta Conference in February 1945, at this point Stalin’s diplomatic position was greatly strengthened by the physical fact that the Red Army occupied most of eastern Europe. In the Yalta conference the Big Three powers were represented by Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. The matters being discussed in the Yalta Conference were very much the same as those discussed in the Tehran Conference in 1943, however the Big Three all agreed that the priority was the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. After the war, the country would be split into four occupied zones, with a quadripartite occupation of Berlin as well. Essentially the Yalta Conference was based on the fear of the expansion of Germany. The three main positive outcomes of the Yalta Conference were; the agreement on the United Nations, Soviet agreement to join the war in the Pacific

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