Who Was to Blame for the Cold War?
The Cold War is the name that is given to the relationship between the USSR and the USA after World War II. It was essentially an ideological struggle between the USSR and the USA. Both the sides were trying to impose their political model as the dominant global one. For over 40 years (1945-1989) the USSR was in constant conflict with the USA, but it was a conflict that never ended up as open warfare. It stayed as a “Cold War” as both sides were trying to destroy each other through economic and political actions as well as propaganda and acts of espionage.
There was tension after World War II between the USA and the USSR because both the sides were trying to impose their political model as the dominant global one. Much of the growing tension of the 1940s was a result of a pattern of ‘action and reaction’ of how one country did something and the other reacted in its own way and responded to it. This resulted in the Cold War between the USA and the USSR.
In this essay I will be considering three possible scenarios of who was to blame for the Cold War; the USA, the USSR or both. There are three historical views on this topic, the Revisionist view which blamed the Americans, the Traditionalist view which blamed the Russians and the Post- Revisionist view which blamed both sides.
The Revisionist view on the Cold war was that American policies, and the desire to spread Capitalism around the globe, caused the Cold War. They thought that the USA was to blame and effectively started the tension, as after Roosevelt’s death in 1945, Harry Truman took over and did not have good terms with Stalin. . He didn’t realize how much Russia had been through in World War II. By this time, America had developed the Atomic Bomb. They refused to share the nuclear technology with the USSR. The USA had used it twice on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which made the USSR feel like the USA was making a point that they were in control and that they were threatening the
There was tension after World War II between the USA and the USSR because both the sides were trying to impose their political model as the dominant global one. Much of the growing tension of the 1940s was a result of a pattern of ‘action and reaction’ of how one country did something and the other reacted in its own way and responded to it. This resulted in the Cold War between the USA and the USSR.
In this essay I will be considering three possible scenarios of who was to blame for the Cold War; the USA, the USSR or both. There are three historical views on this topic, the Revisionist view which blamed the Americans, the Traditionalist view which blamed the Russians and the Post- Revisionist view which blamed both sides.
The Revisionist view on the Cold war was that American policies, and the desire to spread Capitalism around the globe, caused the Cold War. They thought that the USA was to blame and effectively started the tension, as after Roosevelt’s death in 1945, Harry Truman took over and did not have good terms with Stalin. . He didn’t realize how much Russia had been through in World War II. By this time, America had developed the Atomic Bomb. They refused to share the nuclear technology with the USSR. The USA had used it twice on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which made the USSR feel like the USA was making a point that they were in control and that they were threatening the