who was to blame for the cold war

Question 1

why was truman to blame for the cold war (4)

Answer 1

because he went behind stalins back and the agreement at the yalta conference by publicly stating that he would provide aid to any country who faced authoritarian threats, which was code for communism.

he used the idea that countries were under communist threat by stalin in order to try and take over the Eastern sphere of Europe.

Because this broke the yalta agreement, Stalin was angered, and it riled him up. He was known to be violent and merciless so this wasn’t a good idea.

• also USA interfered with European affairs like the greek civil war
• Marshall plan proved that USA wanted control of European markets
• truman only telling stalin about the atomic bomb later, made Stalin believe that he was a liar and untrustworthy.

Question 2

why was Stalin to blame for the cold war (6)

Answer 2

• USSR broke the yalta agreement by not allowing poland to have free elections
• the red army remained in Eastern Europe and used terror to set up communist governments
• after COMINFORM, all satellite states took order from USSR
• berlin blockade was an attempt to bring berlin to USSR control
• Stalin was a dictator who didn’t respect human rights
• Stalin eventually was planning for world domination and was prepared to fight for it, so was also planning on taking over western europe

Question 3

why was churchill to blame for the cold war

Answer 3

• as the USSR expanded its control over Eastern Europe, churchill helped truman create containment policies like the Truman doctrine and the marshall plan. Soviets viewed this as interferance, so it made tensions escalate
• Iron curtain speech of 1946 which symbolised the start fo the cold war
• Berlin blockade (1948), by supporting the US, and responding to soviet blockade of west berlin with berlin airlift, it contributed to tension

financial dependance on US. even though Churchill expressed his hate for communism and stalin, he was also still ‘in debt’ to the US and so needed to show his public support

Question 4

overall, who was more to blame

Answer 4

US and USSR because they didn’t honour the aggrements they had made, kept secrets from each other and had different views and wamns for outcomes