Who was responsible for the origins of the Cold War Essay Example for Free

Who was responsible for the origins of the Cold War Essay The breakup of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) brought an end to the Cold War with victory for the capitalist countries principally United States. The Cold War did not involve direct confrontation between the two rivals, Soviet Union and United States, and it has always been difficult to claim who was really responsible for setting up the Cold War in motion. Historians on both sides have blamed the other side for starting the Cold War reflecting the antagonisms on both sides. Now that the Cold War has been declared over, we can perhaps look dispassionately on who was responsible for the origin of the Civil War. From a historical perspective the question, who was responsible for the origin of the Cold War is important for historical accuracy. As [MacDonald, 1995] points out that historical accounts and their relative plausibility directly influence social science theories and helps us learn from historical examples and utilize them as illustration and evidence. These questions are the subject of this essay to find who started the Cold War. My thesis is that: 1. The conflicting ideologies of Anglo-American Capitalism and Soviet Communism were the most important cause of the Cold War 2. United States and its Western European Allies were the originator of the Cold War and 3. USSR was forced to match the US measures and to build its own sphere of influence to counter-balance those measures to protect Soviet Union. The theses seems to be biased in favor of Soviet Union but when we analyze the relationship between pre-war Russia and United States and Britain we find that the 2nd World War only brought Russia and United States into an alliance to counter the common enemy, Germany. The lessons Russia learnt from the 2nd World War, with more than 20 million deaths can logically be expected to result in a desire to secure its borders by having friendly countries as buffers. After the end of the 2nd World War the Soviet Union was in no position to enter into competition with United States that had come out of the War relatively unscathed. The development of post War era indicate that the responsibility of originating the Cold War can be put on the shoulders of United States and Britain. The mistakes and misunderstanding generated by both sides only intensified the Cold War that kept the entire World divided into the two camps and has left problems in its wake that are haunting various regions of the world to this day. Economic and strategic rivalries often create disagreement even among allies but the ideological philosophies of both sides Soviet Communism on one side and Anglo-American Capitalism on the other, and the determination on both sides to ensure that their ideologies were protected and flourished only intensified the Cold War. United States and Britain were strong advocates of capitalistic, free-trading liberal democracy and many advocated turning the whole world into their form of capitalist economies. The Soviet Union policy makers also dreamed of seeing Marxist-Leninism spread throughout the world. After the destruction of the 2nd World War, with their economy and infrastructure devastated and more than 20 million dead, Soviet Union would have been more than happy to protect communism at home and was not in a position to export it. United States however was still strong and had come out of the War even stronger, and was in a position to strengthen its sphere of influence. The responsibility of originating the Cold War thus fell in the lap of United States and Britain and Soviet Union was not much far behind as discussed below. It is also important to recognize that due to the vast differences in the operating systems of the Soviet Union and United States, the Cold War was inevitable and tracing its origin to prevent a future Cold War is not the lesson we can possibly learn from the history. Even the end of the Cold War has not meant peace and tranquility for the world, and it seems that until one power can have total supremacy with subjugation to the desire of the almighty superpower, wars of one kind or other will continue.