Cold War: Causes & Effects

What were the causes of the Cold War, and the most disappointing development of the post-war era?

There were many complex causes of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The US and the USSR always had their differences, especially when it came to the role of the government and economic structure. In reality, the only reason why they were on the same side in the Second World War was not because they supported or trusted one another, but because they had a common enemy, which was the Nazi Germany. Some American leaders, including the military general Patton, even suggested that the Allied powers should unite to defeat the Soviet Union’s Red Army before they get to Berlin.

After the Yalta Conference, the Big Three-Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill discussed the reorganization of Germany and Eastern Europe after the World War II. Roosevelt and Churchill insisted on giving countries of Eastern Europe free elections, hoping to establish democratic governments, and to separate Germany into four parts, each controlled by the US, Britain, Soviet Union and France. The Soviet Union wanted its part to be communist, while Roosevelt and Churchill wanted theirs to be capitalist. It was agreed that Poland would have a democratic government. They also agreed on attacking Japan several months after the defeat of Germany.

Not all of the agreements of the Yalta conference were fulfilled. Although Stalin did help invade Japan on the Allies’ side, he did not hold free elections in the countries of Eastern Europe. Instead he made it so the winners of the elections are to be supportive of the Soviet Union, so the countries eventually became communist. Stalin wanted to secure the western border between the USSR, and Germany so that it may never pose as a threat to Soviet Union again. The Soviet Union’s expansion into the west, and building of the Berlin Wall, separating Eastern Germany created more problems between the nations.

Despite problems with the Yalta agreement, the US and the Soviet Union had political and economical differences which further fueled tensions between them. America was strongly against the idea of communism and the totalitarian government that existed in the Soviet Union at the time. This was understandable because it stood against everything that Americans believed in. Harry Truman, the president of the US after the World War II, also had a strong