Another reason to why America is to blame is after the success of the atomic bomb the members of the Grand Alliance began to see changes in Truman’s behaviour as he started to control the meetings they had and Stalin refused to be bossed around so arguments between Stalin and Truman started, they started. The USSR is to blame for the breakdown of the Grand Alliance for many reasons. One reason is that the USSR wanted to impose big respirations on Germany but America and Great Britain refused as they knew how it would affect Germany and could cause another war. A second reason is that Stalin wanted most of Europe to become communist, Roosevelt and Churchill didn’t agree. After Truman became Americas new President there was a lot of tension at the Potsdam Conference.
The allies met at Potsdam in July 1945, where the German division was agreed, though there were still disagreements over Poland. At this conference, there is some evidence supporting that early development of the cold war was primarily due to great power rivalry, when Truman was informed of successful explosion of an atomic bomb. He kept this secret from Stalin, not knowing that through his spy network, he was already aware. This only emphasizes the distrust between the two superpowers, and shows strive for power on both sides. In 1946, George Kennan, American ambassador to Moscow formulated the USA’s ‘containment’ policy through the Kennan telegram.
Mao criticised Khrushchev for his policies such as de-Stalinisation and his secret speech. He was also very critical of the policy of Peaceful Coexistence as he believed it was a way of being friendly with the United States (the enemy) and also Mao saw it abandoning millions of comrades struggling to free themselves of capitalist and imperialist oppression. This, therefore, made the USSR an ‘enemy’. How could two countries work together if they had such differing beliefs about how to run their countries? This problem had a big contribution to the split as they couldn’t agree on anything, and if they did, it was because their national interests were at risk.
However, the breakdown in relations between the emerging superpowers during the war and the consequences of the disbandment of the Grand Alliance can be interpreted as the start of the Cold War. Tensions during wartime conferences paved the way for post-war conflict and it can be argued that as soon as the common enemy of Hitler was destroyed, the disparity in post-war aims of the superpowers led to the Cold War. The conferences of ‘the Big Thee’ at Yalta and Potsdam produced areas of tension surrounding plans for Germany and Poland, highlighting the USA fear of USSR’s expansion. Therefore Stalin’s policies for these countries can be construed as an attempt to form an ‘Eastern Bloc’, knowing this to be in complete contradiction with Western ideals for a world without spheres of influence. However, there is not much evidence to suggest the USSR’s was pursuing expansionist aims at this point, and in fact was simply securing its borders.
Both soldiers and civilians blame the defeats in the war and the growing crises on the home front on Tsar. Even the Tsars only army stated it wouldn’t support him if a revolution occurred. Explain the importance/significance of World War 1 to the downfall of the Tsar WWI was a very significant event on the rule of Tsar Nicholas 11. Although it initially bolstered his position, it then became a large factor that contributed to Nicholas’ downfall. The Country was ecstatic when the Tsar made the announcement that Russia was going to fight against Germany in WWI.
First, President Roosevelt was pushing the United States hard into a war with Germany. Roosevelt and Marshall were uneasy about the Pacific, partly since they feared that the United States might be drawn into a war with Japan and kept farther away from war with Germany. Churchill did write in his diary that he was happy that Japan attacked the U.S., since it would bring the U.S. into the war. Churchill was a great Prime Minister for his leadership, his grand vision, his oratory, and his determination. He frequently did not have a firm grasp on how things would turn out.
Stalin, apparently defying decisions made at Yalta, did not liberate the countries in Eastern Europe, but instead occupied them with his troops, much to the vexation of the Western allies. It is customarily argued that it became established Soviet policy to make them ‘voluntary’ satellite states through infiltration and subversion[1], while Britain and the US nobly called for self-determination. However, what is often ignored by this simplistic argument is that Stalin could not merely haul the the largest army in history, millions of hungry, armed, bloodthirsty men, back to the
Finally, the largest controversy surrounded his public outcries to invade Japan against the orders of President Truman. Many believe that this would enter the Soviet Union into the war and would instigate a nuclear war. However, others think that the Soviets were not yet done perfecting a nuclear bomb and by hitting them hard early as well as China, that the Cold War as well as communism could have both been diminished. Regardless, it is hard to play Monday-morning quarterback and place yourself in MacArthur’s position on the battlefield. He had a completely different perspective than those officials sitting atop Capitol Hill will watchful eyes on all global situations.
Although both Truman and Stalin helped increase tensions in Europe and East Asia in the years immediately following World War II, the Cold War itself was likely inevitable. The alliance that had formed between the United States and the USSR during World War II was not strong enough to overcome the past decades of suspicion and unease between the two nations. Moreover, as both leaders sought to achieve their postwar security objectives, which were often mutually exclusive, neither was willing to compromise. The United States and the USSR had always generally disliked and distrusted each other, despite the fact that they were allies against Germany and Japan during the war. Americans had hated and feared Communism ever since it had appeared in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and had refused to recognize the new Soviet government, especially after Bolshevik leaders promoted the destruction of capitalism.
Because of the disagreement with the foundation of a countries’ structure, the USA and the USSR were strange bedfellows during the Second World War. Their alliance was purely strategic. The underlying differences between the supreme capitalist nation (the USA) and the original communist state (the USSR) were bound to re-emerge once Germany and Japan had been defeated. Both of the Superpowers saw each other as a threat to its continued survival and adopted strategies to preserve their positions, which brought a high level of tension after World War 2. At the final stage of World War Two, it was quite clear that the Allies would get the final victory, so in February 1945, Stalin (USSR), Churchill (UK) and Roosevelt (USA) met at Yalta to discuss