Boer War (1899-1902), and the American Civil War (1861-65).

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"US Aggression and not Soviet Expansion was responsible for the start of the Cold War." How far do you agree with this statement?

After the Second World War there were really only two major powers the USA and the Soviet Union. The Second World War had really weakened countries such as Britain and France. However the USA and the Soviet Union had differing beliefs and the way of life for American civilians and Russian civilians was very different. This essay will show and agree with the statement that US aggression was to blame for the Cold War.

Firstly this essay will look at the point of view that Soviet expansion was to blame for the Cold War. Firstly at the Yalta conference Stalin wanted to expand Russia's borders into Poland. This was seen as aggressive by the USA and Britain, however Stalin just wanted to protect himself against Germany after they had been invaded twice by them and had lost twenty million men. Then at the Potsdam Conference the two superpowers disagreed over Eastern Europe, Stalin wanted to set up pro-Soviet governments in Eastern Europe, however Truman became very unhappy about Stalin intentions.
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In October 1947 Stalin set up the Communist Information Bureau or Cominform, this was set up to coordinate the work of the communist parties of Eastern Europe. Cominform regularly brought communist leaders of each communist party to Moscow to be briefed by him and his ministers. This was seen as very aggressive as Stalin was now controlling Eastern Europe and was expanding. This alarmed the West as they thought Stalin was trying to take over the world. However Stalin was only doing this in reaction to the Truman doctrine.

Stalin also broke promises about free elections ...

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