Who Was To Blame For The Cold War Essay

The Soviet Union is to blame for the tension during the Cold War because of Stalin’s forceful spread of communism throughout the world; eliminating the freedom of culture, self-rule, and speech and expression. The Cold War was caused by the military expansionism of the Soviet’s to grow their economic views, which ended up separating the world instead of uniting it. In the “Iron Curtain Speech,” Churchill states,“At the end of the fighting last June, the American and British armies withdrew westward, in accordance with an earlier agreement, to a depth at some points 150 miles on a front of nearly 400 miles to allow the Russian to occupy this vast expanse of territory which the western democracies had conquered...this is certainly not the Liberated …show more content…
Furthermore, the Soviet Union caused tensions for war because of the rewards that came along with war and wanted to expand their power. “What they desire is the fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines…” (Churchill). The Soviets only wanted to expand westward into Europe to gain the “fruits of war,” or the payoff; whether that was spreading communism or expanding Soviet power. However, the Soviets didn’t consider the damage they could cause since Europe was still recovering from WW2. Additionally, if the Soviet Union were to spread communism throughout the world, people could lose freedom culture and expression. “[The] USSR still [belieives] in antagonistic ‘capitalist encirclement’ with which in the long run there can be no permanent peaceful coexistence...it is desirable and necessary that the internal harmony of our society be disrupted, our traditional way of life be destroyed, the international authority of our state be broken, if Soviet power is to be secure” (Moscow Embassy Telegram #511). The Soviet Union believed that there was “no permanent peaceful coexistence,” and would forcefully imperialize their beliefs on other