Who Was to Blame for the Start of the Cold War?
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- Category: History: European
- Date Submitted: 02/24/2016 12:04 PM
- Pages: 6
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Who was to blame for the start of the Cold War?
The Cold war is the name given to the state of military and political tension between the Western powers, mainly dominated by USA, and the eastern powers, controlled by the Soviet Union. The ‘war’ never involved any direct conflict between the powers, but the risk of nuclear warfare was great. Due to the war never having any conflict, no definitive spark can be stated to have caused the war, but many small altercations built the pressure between the two. This essay will aim to come to a decision as to who was to blame for the war beginning. It could be argued to be USA, the Soviet Union, both, or even neither.
In August 1945, the USA dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, in a claimed attempt to force it’s surrender. This was successful as Japan surrendered only 6 days after the second bomb was dropped. However it is often shown that Japan were already considering surrender and the bombs were an unnecessary act of power, to show to the Soviet Union the power that the US now had. If true then surely this is a huge action to have taken just to impose threat. Most definitely an unnecessary one, and a huge leap in this political pressure situation. Also the fact that the US didn’t inform their supposed allies of this attack taking place, shows that America did not trust or value their alliance.
After the Second World War, the four main allied powers met at the Potsdam conference. Here they decided what was to be done with Germany, as the plan after the First World War clearly did not work well. In the end the end Germany was split into four main zones: one French, one British, one American, and one Soviet. Berlin was also split into similar zones, even though it was deep in Soviet territory. After several years of this system, in 1947, USA, Britain, and France met in secret to try and form a greater Western Germany. The fact that USA did not consult Russia, their supposed allies, could be said to be the first act...
The Cold war is the name given to the state of military and political tension between the Western powers, mainly dominated by USA, and the eastern powers, controlled by the Soviet Union. The ‘war’ never involved any direct conflict between the powers, but the risk of nuclear warfare was great. Due to the war never having any conflict, no definitive spark can be stated to have caused the war, but many small altercations built the pressure between the two. This essay will aim to come to a decision as to who was to blame for the war beginning. It could be argued to be USA, the Soviet Union, both, or even neither.
In August 1945, the USA dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, in a claimed attempt to force it’s surrender. This was successful as Japan surrendered only 6 days after the second bomb was dropped. However it is often shown that Japan were already considering surrender and the bombs were an unnecessary act of power, to show to the Soviet Union the power that the US now had. If true then surely this is a huge action to have taken just to impose threat. Most definitely an unnecessary one, and a huge leap in this political pressure situation. Also the fact that the US didn’t inform their supposed allies of this attack taking place, shows that America did not trust or value their alliance.
After the Second World War, the four main allied powers met at the Potsdam conference. Here they decided what was to be done with Germany, as the plan after the First World War clearly did not work well. In the end the end Germany was split into four main zones: one French, one British, one American, and one Soviet. Berlin was also split into similar zones, even though it was deep in Soviet territory. After several years of this system, in 1947, USA, Britain, and France met in secret to try and form a greater Western Germany. The fact that USA did not consult Russia, their supposed allies, could be said to be the first act...