How far was the USSR responsible for the development of the Cold War1945-49 ?
... the Western countries and the USSR about the future of Germany and how the post war period must be managed. The USSR wanted to make Germany pay politically and financially for the world war two. In a way, the USSR wanted to apply against the philosophy of the Versailles treaty against Germany. The western countries lead by the USA, didn’t want to make Germany suffer. They learn from the past with the treaty of Versailles that if a country wanted to reconstruct itself they cannot ask too much from Germany. That is why they preferred to help Germany and assure a stable future for the Germans. In February 1945 Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt met themselves at Yalta to discuss the future of Europe after the Second World War. During this meeting, they agreed to divide Germany into four zones managed by France, Britain, USA, and USSR, to hold free election in western European countries and to set up the United Nations. The USSR also agreed to accept non-communist polish from Britain in the Polish government. Despite this agreement, the USSR has not followed it later. The USSR break this agreement by keeping its zone in Berlin and by keeping their power and influence in the eastern part of Germany. Also, they didn’t apply fully the agreement saying that non-communist polish can enter in the Polish government. This disagreement is confirmed during the Potsdam conference. During this meeting the USSR expressed their opposition about the future of Germany. This breaking of the Yalta treaty has certainly annoyed at a very high level the western countries. They saw USSR as a non-trustable country. It can also be argued that the Berlin blockade had played an important role to the outbreak of this conflict. In 1948 the USSR decide to close the frontier of the eastern Germany. By doing this, the western divided part of Berlin was completely isolated. The aim of Stalin was to gain the total control of Berlin. The response from the USA was to organized an airlift to supplied the western part of Dublin. This event represent for the first time in this conflict the physical representation of this war. Before, there was only tensions who appeared during meetings. But with the Berlin blockade, Stalin, for the first time made a concrete action on the ground against the western interests. However, it might also argue that America has played an important role in the development of the conflict. America did not enter without any interest in the Second World War. The administration of the country aim in the years after the war was to make sure that there was an "open door" for American trade, and that this led the American government to try to make sure that countries remained capitalist countries like the USA. A good example of this hidden aim is the Marshall plan. In June 1947, the American general George Marshall went to Europe. He said every country in Europe was so poor that it was in danger of turning Communist! Europe was ‘a breeding ground of hate’. He said that America should give $17 billion of aid to get Europe’s economy going better and stop Communism. This bearing shows perfectly that America was aiming to make business with Europe, and did not appreciate that eastern countries reject the deal. Another argument against the American is the effect of the Truman doctrine. When Roosevelt died in April 1945, its Vice-president Truman replaced him. He directly adopt a more aggressive behavior against communism. He openly expressed during speeches its policies of containment. Its aim was to contain the spread of communism in the world. For doing this, the United States drawn a world network of allies, financing them, making trade with them, arming them to add other countries in the battle against communism. The formation of NATO lead by the American can also be viewed as a factor who aggravate the conflict. After the Berlin blockade, the western countries were worried about their security. That is why they founded a military alliances in 1949. The North Atlantic Treaty composed of by Belgium, France, Island, Luxembourg, Holland, Canada, Denmark, The United States, Island, Italia, Norway and Portugal. In response of this alliance, the USSR also created a military alliance, composed of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Poland, and Romania Just after the first physical action of the conflict, the Berlin blockade, the Americans openly shown their hostilities against the USSR by creating a military alliance against them. It was the start of a armament race between the two blocks and their alliances. Making the conflict entering in a higher scale than just after the Berlin blockade. These two views on the Cold war conflict do not necessary contradict themselves. Some other historian argued that the conflict was neither the fault of the USSR, and neither the fault of the Americans. Both America and Russia wanted to keep the peace after the war but that conflict was caused by mutual misunderstanding, reactivity, and above all the American inability to understand Stalin's fears and need to defend himself after the war. It is true that Stalin was paranoiac about the security of his country. It can be even argued that all the foreign policies adopted by him, was there only to pro...