There were many reasons for the tensions increasing between the East and West and therefore the Cold War. The mistrust between Truman and Stalin caused difficulties from the beginning. Truman hated Communism and believed Stalin to be an evil dictator who was not to be trusted. This meant there was a complete ideological gap between the two sides. Each side believed that their way of life was greater than that of the other, this lead to mistrust between the populations of these countries as well as between their leaders. The two countries whom had once been Allies during the Second World War had now become great enemies. The West was a capitalist society where everyone was entitled to freedom of speech and their say on how the country was run. The East was a communist society where the people were told how to live and what they should believe. A dictator ruled the East and the West believed this dictator, Stalin, to be evil.
The mistrust between Truman and Stalin lead to many disagreements. Truman and Stalin had agreed at the peace conferences to set up an organisation called the United Nations. This meant that all its members were to stick together to ensure that no war would ever have to be fought again. Stalin was greatly annoyed when he learnt that the USA had developed the atomic bomb and would not share the discoveries secrets with the UN, This was because Truman did not trust Stalin with such information, as he feared how he may use it. This meant that the USSR suddenly felt under great threat from the USA and they realised that they could not fight back if the atomic bomb was to be used against them. Truman had ordered for the atomic bomb to be dropped on the town of Hiroshima in Japan, Stalin was not told of this plan a although the countries were supposedly fighting side by side. Due to this the tensions became very powerful between the East and West.
The USSR then began to expand throughout Europe, Stalin organised rigged elections in many countries and then ruled over them with communist law. Communism was hated by all and during the period when it was expanding throughout Europe the former Prime Minister of Great Britain made a very famous speech. In March 1946 Winston Churchill delivered his “Iron Curtain” speech at Fulton, Missouri. He declared that Europe had been divided in two by Soviet policy. Stalin accused Churchill of trying to stir up war with this speech and this therefore increased tensions even more.
Truman felt he had to stop Stalin expanding communism and save the people of Europe from it. It was in March 1947 then that he proclaimed the “Truman Doctrine”. He said that the USA would oppose communist expansion all over the world. He also announced that $400 million were to be given to Greece and Turkey and this defeated all communist threats in these two countries. The Truman doctrine meant that the USA had committed itself to containing the Soviet threat. The aim was to stop the further expansion of communism anywhere in the world, especially in Europe. This was because Europe was still weak after the Second World War. There were refugees, starvation and disease. Truman believed these were perfect conditions for communism to take over from, it could easily defeat a weakened country and enforce its laws upon them. Truman then devised the “Marshall Plan” to save these threatened countries, the plan was to spend billions of dollars on the weakened European countries to help them rebuild their economies so communism could not take over. All the while, tensions were increasing between the East and West, the people lived I constant fear of yet another war.
The first major Cold War crisis was in 1948 over Berlin. It was agreed at the peace conferences after the Second World War that Germany was to be split up into four different zones with each zone being ruled by a different country. Great Britain, USA, USSR, and France were each given a zone. However this was not quite as straightforward as it had hoped it would be. Berlin was the capital of Germany and the city lay in the middle of the Soviet zone, the other countries understood that a country could not survive without its capital and therefore all their zones would suffer. In solution to this problem they divided Berlin into four zones also. Eventually, France, Great Britain and the USA joined their zones to form the Bizone.
Stalin however then called the Berlin blockade, he was unhappy with the Marshall plan and used Berlin to threaten his enemies, the West. Stalin cut West Berlin off totally and left them with only basic food rations for six weeks. On 24th June all land routes to West Berlin were cut by the Soviet Union. Stalin wanted the Western Allies out of Berlin. The people of West Berlin had then to rely on the Berlin airlift for food, clothes and fuel. The electricity supply was cut in winter and 1,400 planes had to land in April alone to ensure all the people of West Berlin could live comfortably. In May Stalin called off the blockade as we realised the Western Allies were determined to keep West Berlin.
The Cold War was brought about due to many reasons and they began as early as the peace conferences concerning the Second World War. The East and West could no longer stay allies after the war due to the extensive ideological gap. Two enormous superpowers that were once allies and depended on each other against the Nazis eventually got involved in the Cold War in 1949 due mainly to the mistrust over the atomic bomb, the Marshall plan and the Berlin blockade. Without their common enemy in Hitler mistrust quickly developed and resulted in the Cold War.
By Kirsti Hanlon 11B
