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