The origins of the Cold War:
Question 1: Identify and explain why the members of the wartime Grand Alliance began to have serious differences in 1945?
The members of the wartime Grand Alliance had serious differences in 1945 for a variety of reasons. To begin with, the ideological differences between the Western allies and the Soviet Union were great and it is important to note that the single factor that brought these conflicting political ideas together, would be the Nazi regime of Hitler. There are several other factors that caused tension between the wartime allies especially the opening of a second front, distrust between the West and the communists, the soviet claim of a buffer zone and the use of atomic power. At a lesser scale, the American government had differences with the British over their imperialist policies which went against Wilson’s fourteen points which highlighted democracy and freedom for all.
From the very birth of the communist regime in Russia, the West had sent troops to help the ‘White Russians’ and monarchists defeat the Communists who had seized power recently. The Communists had reason to be weary of these capitalist governments who threatened the existence of their ideology. The West had always been weary of the influence of communism spreading into their domains due to the communist belief in revolution. The West had further reason to distrust and be weary of the Communists especially after they signed the Nazi-Soviet ‘Non-Aggression Pact’. This pact shocked the world who now felt that Hitler was more of a threat as he could continue annexing Europe without Soviet intervention. The Communists were also suspicious of the delay by the West in setting up a second front to fight the Nazis. Stalin felt that the West might be trying to use Russian manpower to weaken the Germans with the intention to weaken the USSR in the process. The fact that Stalin was not informed of America’s intention to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was taken as a personal insult. The West and the communists definitely had reasons to distrust each other, hence the serious differences in 1945.
