“the Usa Was to Blame for Starting the Cold War”. How Far Do You Agree?

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“The USA was to Blame for Starting the Cold War”. How Far do you Agree? The Cold War was a prolonged period of rivalry, tension, deep distrust, hostility, suspicion and fear between the world’s two superpowers and their rival ideologies: the Capitalist USA and the Communist USSR. The Cold War started at the end of WWII in 1945 and lasted for over 40 years until the beginning of the 1990s when the USSR collapsed. Although there was no direct fighting between the USA and USSR, the Cold War involved rivalry between the two sides. The earliest stages of the Cold War coincided with the final defeats of Nazi Germany and Japan in the first half of 1945. The USA and USSR had very different ideologies. USA believed in the power of Capitalism- it was a democracy. USA’s government was chosen in free democratic elections. Businesses and properties were privately owned. The USSR had been a Communist country for more than 30 years. It was a one-party dictatorship, elections were held but all candidates belonged to a Communist party. By 1949 the relationship between the USSR and USA had deteriorated. To some extent the USA is blamed for starting the Cold War. This is because on 16th July 1945, America had successfully tested an atomic bomb- the most powerful weapon in the world, capable of destroying a city completely. Until the Potsdam conference, Stalin did not know about this. The USSR could have misinterpreted this action and thought that it was a weapon to keep them in check. Stalin was afraid that America might start a war with Russia because of the advantage of having nuclear weapons. The USSR was aware of the fact that the USA was one step ahead of them in weapons- this eventually triggered an arms race, which began in 1945. On 12th April 1945 President Roosevelt died. The Vice-President, Harry Truman, replaced him. Truman was much more anti-communist than

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