Cold War

The blame for the Cold War cannot be placed on one person, it developed as a series of chain reactions as a struggle for supremacy.   It can be argued that the Cold War was inevitable, and therefore no one’s fault, due to the differences in the capitalist and communist ideologies.   It was only the need for self- preservation that had caused the two countries to sink their differences temporarily during WWII.   Yet many of the tensions that existed in the Cold War can be attributed to Stalin’s policy of Soviet expansion.   Therefore, the majority of the blame for the start of the Cold War may be placed on Stalin and his foreign policy.
Stalin’s foreign policies contributed enormously to the tensions of the Cold War.   His aim to take advantage of the military situation in post-war Europe in order to strengthen Russian influence, was perceived as a threat to the American people.   Stalin was quite effective in his goal to gain territory, with victories in Poland, Romania, and Finland.   To the western, this success looked as if it was the beginning of serious Russian aggressions.   It appeared that Russia’s attitude went against all the promises that Stalin had made at Yalta, mainly, that Stalin would permit free elections in the eastern European states.   It was not enough for a state to be merely communist, it had to adopt the Russian- style communism.  
From this point the Cold War truly becomes a chain reaction.   The goal was to force the western powers from West Berlin by reducing it to point of starvation.   What Stalin’s actions unarguably did was start a string of chain reactions within the western powers, and therefore, the majority of the blame rests with him.   Furthermore, Russia argues that the areas had never had democratic governments, and that a communist system would allow these backward countries’ to progress and flourish.   His policy toward Soviet Russia, then, was much more severe that that of Roosevelt.   The Russians claim, and have always claimed,...