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Cold War is the term used to describe the intense rivalry that developed after World War II between the groups of Communist and non-Communist nations. On one side were the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U. S. S. R. ) and its communist allies that referred to as the Eastern bloc.
On the other side were the United States of America and its democratic allies, usually referred to as the Western bloc. The Cold War was characterized by mutual distrust, suspicion, and misunderstandings by both the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies. The United States accused the Soviet Union of seeking to expand Communism throughout the world. The Soviets on the other hand, accused the United States with practicing imperialism and preventing revolutionary actions in other nations. (Cold War 762) Which side of this major conflict in history was correct in their accusations? Though both the United States and the Soviet Union played major conflicting roles in starting the event known as the Cold War, the United States had a much stronger influence of the two in creating the Cold War. There were two opposed ideas for post World War II politics, universalism and spheres of influence. (Roots) Universalism meant that all nations had a common interest in world affairs.
This would eventually lead to a joining of the nations in some kind of organization, thus the beginning of the United Nations. Spheres of influence mean that each power had its own interests and world political power would be held in check by the balance of power between the strong nations. These two ideas were part of the underlying differences in the Soviet Union and United States. Says Anthony Eden concerning the policies of the two opposing nations, Soviet policy is amoral, United States policy is exaggeratedly moral, at least when non-American interests are concerned. (Roots) The Americans though, pressured their ideas onto the rest of the world more strongly than the Soviets. The Yalta conference is often cited as the beginning of the Cold War. During the seven days of February 4 through the 11 th, 1945, the Big Three Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Josef Stalin- met in Crimea at the Lavinia Palace on the Black Sea.
The main purpose of the Yalta conference was the re-establishment of the nations conquered and destroyed by Germany. Poland was given back its independence and given is own national election in order to create a new, independent government. The Yalta Conference agreed to divide Germany into zones controlled by each of the three nations present. One result of this discussion was that Stalin was persuaded to endorse a Declaration on Liberated Countries which proposed free elections and other democratic practices and liberties in Eastern European countries that were at the time the site of Red Army victories over the Nazis. Undoubtedly, one of the more significant Cold War origins belonged to the region of Eastern Europe, where disorder between the Western powers and Russia lasted for decades. Russia, who had sacrificed a great deal to stop Hitler and the Nazis, desperately wanted the countries of Eastern Europe, with Poland being their main goal.
On the other hand, the United States demanded that Poland be a democracy where free elections would be held. The Soviets believed they needed a buffer zone to protect their country from the west, so they expanded Communism into Eastern Europe. (Pimlott 9) Most historians have come to admit that the Soviet Union had very clear and definite but limited aims at the end of World War II and that these aims did not include expansion of the Soviet State, only political control over neutrality of the states on its western border. (Winkler 697) Stalin himself was obsessed not with foreign conquest but with security on his western borders and with the neutralization of Germany. (Winkler 697) This is certainly where the Cold War began to heat up, as the Soviet Union broke its promise to free elections in Poland in the late 40 s and early 50 s, a turn of events, which did not bode well with the American government. Through this whole debate, Stalin vehemently stated that the United States was not being sympathetic to the Soviet Union s ideas. For all that the U. S. S.
R. gave up during World War II, they felt Poland was rightfully theirs, but more importantly they felt Poland was a major security issue. The past two world wars saw Russia being invaded through Poland, and they felt that this could simply not happen again, therefore, they wanted control so they could establish military and political defenses to any country wanting to attack Russia from the west. This, along with the same reasoning behind other Eastern European countries, including a separated Germany, became a major debate of the Cold War where tensions almost led to an all out war. Russia felt that the West should establish its own capital in West Germany and let the Russian shave Berlin, since Berlin falls in East Germany, yet another major eastern European conflict. This was more Russia s fault for having such heavy tension in this area, but one can certainly understand where Russia was coming from in wanting more control over this volatile region.
On the other hand, breaking promise to hold free elections, especially in a region where popular opinion wanted a democracy over a communist state. Hostility in Eastern Europe was unavoidable, especially with the lack of communication during the war over the plans on what exactly to do with this area after 1945. During 1945 and early in 1946, the Soviet Union cut off all contacts between the West and the occupied territories of Eastern Europe. In March 1946, Winston Churchill warned that an iron curtain had descended across Eastern Europe. He made popular the phrase Iron Curtain to refer to the Soviet barriers against the West. Behind these barriers, the U.
S. S. R. steadily expanded its power.
In 1946, the U. S. S. R. organized Communist governments in Bulgaria and Romania.
In 1947, Communists took control of Hungary and Poland, and the Czechoslovakia early in 1948. These countries governments became controlled by the U. S. S. R. Other events that transpired in the beginnings of this long and potentially devastating Cold War were two documents in particular produced by the American Government.
With forced pressure from the interior government, President Harry Truman and his administration took an aggressive stance on Communism, at any and all costs. The first document was a speech by President Truman given in the spring of 1947. The document was considered a Cold War Biproxy (Sharnik 29) and has gone down in history as laying a foundation for foreign policy in the United States. March 1947, President Truman was granted $ 400 million to help free nations resist communist aggression, which later became known as the Truman Doctrine. (Cold War 763) The Truman Doctrine was enacted in March 12 th, 1947 in an effort to contain the spread of communism by aiding foreign countries. (Pimlott 10) The main goal for this was to back up any nation resisting Communist aggression. At any chances of stopping Communism from spreading, the United States were prepared to stop any movement by Communist countries into free countries throughout the world. It was truly the first document proclaiming the United States as the World Policemen (Sharnik 33) against Communism and amplified the fact that America is no longer an isolationist country and our involvement in the global field became very evident.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and Germany s declaration of war on the U. S. a few days later also smothered any isolationist sentiments. (Winkler 696) The other very significant document in American Cold War policy was NSC- 68, a document brought together by the National Security Council in 1950, a relatively new organization set up to create a department of defense, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency. (Sharnik 30) This document expanded thoroughly on the Truman Doctrine, and packed the muscle behind America s new foreign policy. NSC- 68 called for an immediate upgrade of our defense systems.
This was a pure military move, and cost our nation over $ 35 billion a year. The threat for massive retaliation started to surface from this as well, and the threat of a nuclear war was ever present, especially with the Russians successfully testing an atomic bomb in 1949. (Sharnik 56) This called for an increase in nuclear armament, and if a war broke out, this document would guarantee that if the United States would have to fight to the death, they would. This marked the first guarantee of a massive military response to any Communist forces wanted to test the waters of democracy. This was also about the time where the rollback theory came into play, and Americans debated about not just stopping but penetrating any Communist movements. These bold documents from the United States marked the beginnings of the height of the Cold War that would come about roughly ten years later, where if a large-scale battle broke out with Russia or China, human and land losses would be atrocious. Another event that shaped the world s history and marked the official beginning of the Cold War was the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima by the United States.
After discussing Russia and getting their consent on joining the war on Japan, the United States again acted hastily by dropping a weapon of such mass destruction that it completely leveled the city Hiroshima. Great Britain and America worked together to create the atomic bomb, but left the Soviet Union out of the loop. (Winkler 18) The agreement was with Russia that on August 8 th, the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan. (Sharnik 12) Taking this into account, the United States went ahead and dropped the bomb on August 6 th, two days early. In another hasty and careless move, the second bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. This bomb was dropped before the Japanese even received an ultimatum from the United States about an unconditional surrender.
The pertinent issue is that the United States did not even talk to Russia about their plans to drop the bomb before it was already done. The Red Army had to used the resources, raw materials, and manpower to move their troops over to Japan from Eastern Europe. This expedition would have taken approximately 3 months. Once they officially got there, the war was already over. Casualties in World War II of the United States only reached a mere 500, 000, insignificant compared to the Soviet Union s losses, which reached an immense 22 million. (Roots) Also, the Russians probably realized that the Americans did not want them anywhere in Asia, where Communism could spread, in fact, the United States did not want to have to share occupation of Japan with Russians. The Americans also wanted to demonstrate the power of the atomic bomb, and give Stalin a reason to be fearful of the power the United States possessed.
America hoped this would silence any troubles that might have arisen in the post-war era. Shunning the Soviet Union to end the war with Japan without any further interactions in Asia was one of the first Cold War maneuvers of many to come from both sides. The United States was out to better their own country, and al the while not promoting any kind of unity between the superpowers, something that democracy was supposed to be based upon. In conclusion, it can be seen that through actions taken by Americans after World War II, tensions with the Soviet Union rose and culminated into the Cold War.
Though both the United States and the Soviet Union played major conflicting roles in starting the event known as the Cold War, the United States had a much stronger influence of the two in creating the Cold War. Could the Cold War have been prevented totally? With the drastic differences in ideologies and viewpoints on many political issues, the Soviet Union and United States of America were destined to become enemies.
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