Causes of the Cold war. Soviet expansion and the Marshall Plan.

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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  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.

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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 ...

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