Cause for cold war
Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe was massive cause of the cold war.
Over twenty million Russians died during the Second World War, so Stalin
said he wanted to create a buffer zone of friendly states around Russia
to make sure that Russia could never be invaded again.
Stalin was planning to take the whole of Eastern Europe. During the war,
Communists from the occupied countries of Eastern Europe escaped to
Moscow and set up Communist governments in exile there, and as the
Red Army drove the Germans back, it occupied large areas of Eastern
Europe and, once the war was over the USSR never left the countries it
had taken in the war, this occupation created Stalin desired buffer zone.
This large and fast expansion of the USSR and its allies scared the USA and
tension grew due to the fear of further expansion west toward America by
the USSR. It caused conflict between the two superpowers because of the
vast ideological differences. One of the main beliefs of communism is that
capitalism is inherently bad and posed a threat to the working class. The
communists view all capitalist nations as possible enemies. According to
them, capitalism will eventually destroy itself and it is their duty to help it
along. They refused cooperation between themselves and
capitalist
nations ideologically.
The USSR’s expansion is in my opinion a very important, if not the most
important cause of the cold war. It scared the USA and empowered the
USSR, it caused the USA to seriously think about the threat of
communism from the east and its own defences against communism, it
caused immense secrecy between the two countries, America didn’t
know where Russia was planning on going and Russia didn’t know if
America was going to stop them.
Another massive cause for the start of the cold war was the Marshall
plan. The United States became alarmed with the growing of
communism in Europe and set up the Marshall Plan in order to control
the spread of communism. The Marshall Plan was an economic support
program funded by the United States. They gave money to the war torn
democratic countries in order to rebuild their economy. They did not
give money to the Soviet Union and any of its allies. The Unites States’
motivation for doing this was to provide themselves with trading
partners in the east and to economically exclude the Soviet Union.
All the Marshall plan did was anger the USSR, it made them hate America
and all her allies. It increased tension massively by showing the two
countries that either could be attacked at any time, and it also showed that
the USA would stop at nothing to stop the spread of communism. The USSR
criticised the USA and said that all they wanted to do was control and
enslave Eastern Europe by putting them in to the USA’s debt.
Compared to the expansion of Russia, the Marshall plan is a large factor
resulting in the cold war, the Marshall plan is still vastly important as a
cause of the cold war, but without the expansion of Russia it would not be
necessary, but it was important enough to scare and enrage Stalin. It
resulted in Stalin forming COMECON the USSR’s answer to Marshall Aid; it
was a plan to give finical aid to all communist states that felt the threat of
capitalism. This plan in turn angered America thus starting a cold war.
In conclusion I believe that the huge expansion of Russia was the main and
most important cause of the cold war it had a massive impact, it scared the
west and forced the Americans to tackle the threat of communism head on.
The Marshall plan was simply the little nudge that sent Russia and America
in to the cold war. The expansion was the main factor; it forced the
capitalist west to evaluate their defences against the threat of communism.
The expansion built up a time bomb of tension and conflict.
The Russian expansion, in my view, started the cold war and was the main
cause for tension and conflict; it destroyed the shaky relationship
between the USSR and America and made Russia the biggest superpower
in the world. And that is why I believe that the Russian expansion is the
main cause of the cold war.