Soviet leaders were convinced that communism would eventually spread throughout the world. Americans, on the other hand, believed the answer for world problems was the American way of living. As a result, from as early as 1917, there were hints of the hostility between the two countries. Such hostility was suspended in 1941 because of the common objective between the two countries of destroying Hitler. The end of WWII, however, meant that many countries in Europe had no proper government, therefore the USA and the USSR had different views as to how to replace the governments of the new countries of Europe. Hitler had predicted this situation during his last days: “After the collapse of the German Reich, and until there is a rise in nationalism in Asia, Africa or Latin America, there will only be two powers in the world”.
Besides the different political systems both nations were ruled by, the direct differences between east and west began at the conference of Potsdam in July 1945 just months before the end of the war and the drop of the atomic bomb by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At Potsdam the situation was much more different than at Yalta, having new players on the scene, being president Truman for the United States and Prime Minister Clement Attlee for the United Kingdom differences between war leaders began to cook up, specially between President Truman and Stalin. Truman lacked Roosevelt´s diplomatic characteristics of negotiation and foresight; and put forth the development of a tougher American policy which made him had on various occasions confrontations with Soviet officers specially Soviet Commissar of Foreign Affairs Molotov. In April 1945, Truman spoke harshly to Molotov and insisted that the soviets should follow the agreements made at Yalta. He did not listen to Molotov’s explanations. Also the political situation on the globe was much more different than at Yalta, at the time eastern Europe had been liberated by the soviet union from Nazi control creating socialist governments on eastern Europe in favour of the USSR something the USA as well as Britain was worried about and making this new situation greatly discussed on Potsdam creating the first frictions between both superpowers in the road to the Cold War.
As for the agreements and disagreements of the Potsdam conference, there were several terms from which both the USSR and the USA could be blamed for increasing the tension between the two superpowers. The agreements included dissolving and excluding the Nazi party from all of Germany, a term on which both agreed. However The idea of the USSR playing a part in running the rich German industrial area of the Ruhr was rejected by Truman, which can be an argument that supports both views: that the USSR was to blame because of the expansion of communism, in this case over Germany, but at the same time, the USA can be blamed for not letting it strengthen its position over Europe, as the USA was doing by rejecting the proposal. Truman additionally blocked the idea of the Soviet Union sharing the occupation of Japan, though Stalin also rejected the proposal that Britain and USA should have a greater influence in Eastern Europe, showing an example which might be supported by those who believe that the USA was to blame, although the latter is a fact most probably used as an argument by historians who blame the USSR for the occurrence of the Cold War.
Another point of inflection on the development of a Cold War by 1945 was a reciprocal military fear the USA and the USSR had on each other. Being both nations military super powers they had their concerns on each other creating a war on military expenditure for both sides. The Soviet Union feared for some years of the nuclear weapons the United States possessed, this new nuclear technology developed by the United States was sure to revolutionize the way politics and relationships between east and west were going to be handled. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki just months after Potsdam troubled the USSR and feared the Americans could drop at any moment one at Moscow. On the other hand the United States feared the massive armed forces the Soviets possessed, they had demonstrated through out WW2 their huge military capacity and incredible amounts of armed forces during the Nazi invasion of Russia evidently showing how Soviets outnumbered any armed forces on the globe building tensions between east and west.
All this incidents had been building up tensions for a long time, direct confrontation and fear of a new war was the new feeling in politics across the globe, Churchill reflected the poor relations between the East and West in a speech. In March 1946, Churchill made a speech at Fulton, Missouri in which he said, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.... Behind that line lie all the capitals of the central and Eastern Europe - all are subject in one form or another not only to Soviet influence but also to a very high and increasing control from Moscow." The Iron Curtain speech was seen by Stalin as a clear offense from West although Churchill wasn’t Prime Minister any more, this speech could be sayed to be a turning point on both sides relationships.
Just after the Iron Curtain Speech a new but secret event changed the way the United States behaved during the growing tensions. On February 22 1946 George Kennan a US officer at the Soviet embassy wrote the Long Telegram outlining his opinions and views of the Soviets. According to Kennan, the Soviet Union did not see the possibility for long-term with the capitalist world. It was its ever-present aim to advance the socialist cause. Capitalism was a menace to the ideals of socialism, and capitalists could not be trusted or allowed to influence the Soviet people. Outright conflict was never considered a desirable avenue for the propagation of the Soviet cause, but their eyes and ears were always open for the opportunity to take advantage of “diseased tissue” anywhere in the world. This telegram was seen as the United States as a proof that the Soviet Union wouldn’t coexist peacefully with capitalists powers making a shifting point on US diplomacy.
As a response to George Kennan Telegram, on March 12, 1947, President Truman enunciated the Truman Doctrine. The essence of the Doctrine was that "it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure." This was clearly an anti-communist doctrine. This amounted to an American declaration of war upon Communist Russia. President Truman followed his speech with massive military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey. (The communist guerillas were defeated by the American troops in 1948 in both Greece and Turkey.)
The U.S. government also realized that a prosperous Europe would be the most effective barrier to Communism. On June 4, 1947, the U.S. Secretary of State, George Marshall, speaking at the Harvard University, stated that, "It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace." Immediately after the speech the United States invited all European countries to put forward plans for economic reconstruction so that the United States would provide the necessary financial aid to them. The Soviet Union refused to accept the American financial aid.
In the eyes of the Soviet Union, the United States was giving economic aid to all European countries to make them anti-communist. Shortly after the proclamation of the Marshall Plan, Andrei Zhdanov, one of Stalin's lieutenants, said, "The United States proclaimed a new, frankly predatory and expansionist course. The purpose of this new frankly expansionist course is to establish the world supremacy of American imperialism." Because of these reasons, the Soviet Union also forbade her satellite countries (the eastern European countries) to accept Marshall Aid. In 1949, Russia tried to counter the Marshal Plan -by offering financial aid to her satellites under the Molotov Plan. With the proclamation of the Truman Doctrine of March 1947 and the launching of the Marshall Plan, the United States was clearly leading the western nations to resist Russian Communist expansionist activities in Europe. Cold War had begun.
To conclude with, there are several events that agree that the USSR was to blame; that Stalin planned communist spread throughout the world. Likewise, there are several other events that support the view that the USA was to take the blame; that Soviet actions were merely defensive and that the USA wanted to control its area of influence, but refused to allow the Soviet Union to do the same. Thirdly, there are also events that support the view that neither of the superpowers was to be blamed; that the Cold War was based on misunderstanding. As shown previously, there is no event that stands out as a crucial sole factor that caused the Cold War, but instead a series of factors that built it between the end of WWII and 1949.
