What were the direct causes of the cold war?

Answer 1

* The Soviet Union was a Communist country, which put the needs of the state ahead of personal human rights and was ruled by a dictator. The USA was a capitalist democracy which valued freedom and feared Communism. * One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, and guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression. The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.

* Stalin wanted huge reparations from Germany, and a 'buffer' of friendly states to protect the USSR from being invaded again. Britain and the USA wanted to protect democracy, and help Germany to recover. They were worried that large areas of eastern Europe were falling under Soviet control. * The Soviet Union could not forget that in 1918 Britain and the USA had tried to destroy the Russian Revolution. Stalin also thought that they had not given him enough help in the Second World War. Britain and the USA could not forget that Stalin had signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Germany in 1939.

* Neither side trusted each other. Every action they took made them hate each other more: * Russian historians blamed Churchill (the British Prime Minister) and Truman (the American president, 1945-1953). They said Truman and Churchill wanted to destroy the USSR, which was just defending itself. At first, western writers blamed Russia. They said Stalin was trying to build up a Soviet empire. Later, however, some western historians blamed America. They said Truman had not understood how much Russia had suffered in the Second World War. Later still, historians think BOTH sides were to blame - that there were hatreds on both sides. Most recently, historians agree that the Cold War was primarily a clash of beliefs - Communism versus Capitalism.

Answer 2

· Beliefs - the Soviet Union was a Communist country, which put the needs of the state ahead of personal human rights and was ruled by a dictator. The USA was a capitalist democracy which valued freedom and feared Communism.

· Events- neither side trusted each other. Every action they took made them hate each other more.

Answer 3

The US felt the threat that the USSR might represent after the end of World War 2. Therefore, they needed to come up with a plan to drop the communist system down without actual confrontation in war.

Answer 4

n many ways, Britain and America were natural enemies of the Soviet Union. So it is in fact easy to answer: 'Why did the USA-USSR alliance begin to break down in 1945?' As soon as the common threats of Hitler and Japan were removed, it was inevitable that the allies would fall out.

During the war, there had been growing tensions:

• For along time, Stalin refused to join the United Nations;

• Stalin was angry that Britain and America kept delaying D-Day, believing it was a plot to allow Germany to weaken the Soviet Union;

• At the Tehran Conference (1943) Stalin and Churchill clashed over how much control Stalin would have over the countries of eastern Europe;

However, the 'Big Three' - especially President Roosevelt - knew that they had to stay allied until the end of the war, so they managed to patch up these differences. As soon as it was clear that the war was coming to an end, however, more and more cracks appeared in the alliance until it finally split apart alogether and the allies of the war became enemies.

Here's the causes/events which led to the cold war

1 What they believed ('Ideologies')

The Soviet Union was a Communist country, which was ruled by a dictator and put the needs of the state ahead of personal human rights.

The USA was a capitalist democracy which valued freedom and feared Communism.It was not just that the two ideologies were conflicting - they were militant and expansionist. They both believed that the alternative ideology was a threat to their own way of life, and that the only way for the world to be happy was for their particular ideology to take over the world. This mixture of ideological fear and aggression meant that in both America and Russia, their beliefs invaded and affected their foreign policies.

2 Aims

Stalin wanted huge reparations from Germany, and a 'buffer' of friendly states to protect the USSR from being invaded again.

Britain and the USA wanted to protect democracy, and help Germany to recover. They were worried that large areas of eastern Europe were falling under Soviet control.

This meant that the 'Big Three' found it difficult to get agreement at the Conferences (Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam) which outlined the principles of the post-war peace.

And it proved impossible to get agreement on the details at the Conference of Ministers - set up after the war to agree the post-war settlement - and the Conference eventually broke down altogether:

3 Resentment about History

The Soviet Union could not forget that in 1918 Britain and the USA had tried to destroy the Russian Revolution.

Britain and the USA could not forget that Stalin had signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Germany in 1939.

These resentments were part of the underlying ideological gulf between the two sides, but they also provided weapons in the Propaganda war which both sides waged against each other.

4 Events

Against this background of underlying differences in ideologies, and aims, and historical resentments, there were a series of events which bit-by-bit broke down the alliance and turned the allies of the war into enemies.

Neither side trusted the other. Because they were so different, each side saw each event differently, and believed they were in the right ... and that the other side was in the wrong. So every action they took made them hate each other more:

Yalta Conference (Feb 1945)

Potsdam Conference (Jul 1945)

Hiroshima (Aug 1945)

Salami tactics (1945-48)

Fulton Speech (Mar 1946)

Greece (Feb 1947)

Truman Doctrine (Mar 1947)

Marshall Plan (Jun 1947)

Cominform (Oct 1947)

Czechoslovakia (Feb 1948)

Answer 5

The direct causes of the cold war were tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union. Distrust arose between them as WW2 ended.