Due to their different ideologies the two countries did not trust each other, and had not trusted each other many years before the Cold War actually began.
During the First World War Russia had been left alone to fight Germany in the East whilst France and Britain were fighting Germany together in the West. The war put a great strain on Russia, civilians were hungry and troops could not be supplied. Soon Russia signed the treaty of Brest- Livtovosk with Germany and pulled out of the War. In 1918 Russia had a civil war in which the Communist Red army was fighting against the White army. The USA, Britain and France helped the White army, as they were angry at the Russian Communist government for pulling Russia out of The First World War, they also wanted to do all that they could to stop the Communist government taking over. The Western allies failed to defeat the Communists and so a Communist government came into power in Russia. In the 1930s the Western powers had been reluctant to join Russia in an alliance against Hitler, as it was a Communist country. During The Second World War Russia had again been left alone to fight Germany in the East until the end of the war when the USA joined in. Russia had again suffered a great loss of civilians and troops. At the end of the Second World War The USA dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this increased Russia’s feeling of anger towards the West, because the USA had not told The USSR about the bomb. Both of the Superpowers were suspicious and afraid of the other Superpower’s strength. The Cold War began because of the mistrust between the Superpowers.
Another cause of the Cold War was the dropping of the atomic bomb by America this lead to an Arms race between the two Superpowers. Each side tried to get ahead of each other in the arms race – to produce more bombs or better technology. Neither side dared to fall behind or else the other might attack them. Both sides did not attack each other because if they had MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) if they did attack each other. The arms race was a cause of the Cold War because it increased the feelings of hate and jealousy between the superpowers.
When the USA dropped the atomic bomb. Russia realised that she was now weaker than America and she needed a buffer zone to protect herself from attack. Stalin decided that all the countries, which were under Russia’s control, during and after the Second World War, should turn into Communist countries, and so – even though Stalin had promised to allow free elections in the countries- he managed to force all the countries which were under Soviet control in Eastern Europe to turn into Communist countries. This obviously made the Western allies angry, but because they themselves were supporting the monarchists in Greece who were fighting against the Communists, they could not really do anything about Stalin forcing the countries to turn to Communism as they themselves were attempting to overthrow Communism in Greece. When Stalin controlled Eastern Europe the allies felt that Russia could not be trusted to keep promises and therefore America felt that they could not trust Russia.
America had a theory called the Domino theory that Communism was taking over the World, country by country, like a line of Dominoes falling. In 1949, the most populous country in the world –China- had fell to Communism, after the USA had backed the loosing side. The Cold war happpened because the USA were desperate and determined to stop any country from turning Communist, but they did not wish to stop the communist ideology from spreading by using force, as this would give America a bad name.
America released the Truman Doctrine and started to offer Marshall aid to all countries, whether they were Communist or Capitalist. America claimed that their aim was “ to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed members or by outside pressures.”. America was hoping that the countries that were in Eastern Europe would accept Marshall aid. Stalin banned any Communist country from accepting Marshall aid and Stalin set up a Russian aid organisation called COMECON, whose aims were to provide aid for the Communist countries. Stalin was angry that America was providing aid to Western Germany and was afraid that the people of the East would migrate to the West as the living conditions were better there, to prevent this he built the Iron curtain, which stretched “from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic”. Germany had caused a lot of harm to Russia in World war One and World War Two, Stalin did not want his country to suffer again so he tried to strip Germany of factories and other resource to try to cripple it. America on the other hand thought that if she left Germany alone then it might lead to the general public turning to extremist parties for help, like what happened when the treaty of Versailles was signed. Stalin was angry at the USA for providing aid to Western Germany and the Capitalist part of Berlin, especially when the USA introduced a new currency –the deutschmark- into the Capitalist part of Germany to help the economic revival of Germany. In June 1948 Stalin blockaded Berlin in the hope that he would force the allies out of Western Berlin. But the allies were determined not to give up and so they flew in supplies into Western Berlin. The Berlin blockade was a big factor, which contributed to the cold war, it showed the hate of Russia towards America to the whole world, it also showed America’s determination and the fact that America stuck to the principles of the Truman doctrine and did not attack Russia.
The main cause of the Cold War was the different ideologies between the superpowers and the hate and mistrust which built up between them due to their suspicions of each other. The origins of the Cold war were very old and the hate and mistrust between the superpowers had built up over a long period of time but the first time it was made apparent to the rest of the world was when the USSR blockaded Berlin.
