Origins of the Cold War

Origins of the Cold War

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For many years , the Cold War dominated the international scene and caused major crises , the most worrisome of which is the growth of weapons of mass destruction . What were really the causes of the Cold War

First , the US reacted with much trepidation with the results of the Russian Revolution . The US could not accept a country with ideologies that critically opposed democracy . This reaction materialized in the form of the Red Scare in 1917 . There were mass arrests of suspected anarchists

, socialists , and communists (Miscamble , 2007

Second , during the World War II , 2 months after Germany surrendered the three influential leaders of the US , Soviet Union , and UK met at Potsdam to discuss how to treat Germany . Stalin wanted German industry to rebuild USSR economy , whereas the US feared that it would have to pay all the cost of rebuilding Germany . A compromise was reached : Germany was to be partitioned into four occupied zones . The critical issue at Potsdam and the succeeding 2 years was the control of Europe . The Soviet Union thought that it was its turn to rule and particularly wanted to have Poland (Poland is a strategic place to attack Russia . On the contrary , US believed that every nation has a right to choose its own form of government , as stated in Wilson 's Fourteen Point Plan . The Soviets , however , took this as too much a hand of America . Accordingly Stalin created what was known as the Iron Curtain ' an ideological and physical boundary dividing Europe in two . By 1946 , UK and US were unifying all of Germany under western rule , whereas Stalin was using Soviet communism to dominate half of Europe (Miscamble , 2007

Third , overshadowing all other issues during the Cold War was the atomic bomb (Miscamble , 2007 . During World War II , Roosevelt and Churchill created policies that would ensure a nuclear arms race . When Stalin found out about the Manhattan Project , he began developing a Soviet bomb . After the Hiroshima bombing , the US developed a disarmament plan under an international regulatory agency , and the Soviets wanted to have a The two countries never had an agreement

Fourth , the new USSR-US relationship is another cause of the Cold War In 1947 , Truman uttered that he was tired of babysitting the Soviets ' and Stalin exclaimed that communism and democracy were incompatible . The US believed that the Soviets wanted to spread their system and so , the US created a policy to contain USSR 's ambition . The Truman Doctrine , stating that US would supply aid to Turkey and Greece in the context of general war against terrorism , marked the formal declaration of the Cold War (Miscamble , 2007 . Moreover , Secretary of State Marshall enticed nations with massive assistance if they could agree on reviving a working economy under an accepted political and social conditions , meaning democracy

Fifth , North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ) was created . In the treaty , the US made a commitment to defend Europe . It also signified that European affairs are...