The Cold War During World War II - 2261 Words

The Cold War was a period of rivalry short of armed confrontation. Tensions oscillated between former allies of the World War II, Russia and America, leading to the infamous cold war. It is rather difficult to determine the starting point of the Cold War because the East-West relationship had been deteriorating since a long time due to their conflicting ideologies and aspirations. However, the circumstances required for them to form an alliance in World War II, but this friendship was short lived. This essay will largely examine the immediate events after the World War II that lead to the straining of the East West relationships .A debate still lingers as to whether it was the West or the East who initiated the Cold War, thus we find†¦show more content†¦Some historians suggest that seeds for the Cold War had been sown as early as 1917 when the Russian revolution upheld their communist beliefs and this ideology most certainly was at odds with American Capitalism. At one end President Wilson declared that ‘peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty’ while at the other extreme Trotsky prophesized that ‘Either the Russian revolution will create a revolutionary movement in Europe, or the European powers will destroy the Russian revolution.’ (Thompson 1981) The second statement suggests that there was little room for coexistence and it is this rigid ideology that the Orthodox theorists criticize and use as a means of analyzing why the USSR was to be blamed for the Cold War. The post war arrangements were always a point of disagreements between the allies but the Big Three conferences aimed at finding common ground. However, the West was disheartened to see that Russia did not keep to its word as agreed at Yalta and Potsdam, especially regarding Poland and despite having agreed to free elections there, Russia imposed its own government. The other violation by Soviets was of the Declaration on Liberated Eu rope and they kept up expansionism and in fact near the end of the War, Stalin was keener on expansion than to defeat Hitler, making sure he extended in Europe as much as