Usa Actions In Potsdam Conference 1945 example essay topic

To what extent were soviet policies responsible for the outbreak and development of the cold war between 1945 and 1949? It is partially to blame Soviet and USA policies for the outbreak and developing of the Cold War. What was claimed as necessary for self-defence by one side was taken by the other as evidence of aggressive intent. The soviet polices were not that influential in the outbreak of the war but the USA actions in Potsdam conference 1945. While for the developing of the cold war, Communist and Capitalists were equally responsible for the build up of events.

By the end of the war in February 1945, Russia had suffered the most amongst the winning countries. It had suffered enormous losses during the war and was trying to be friendly to the eastern countries to recover economically and not suffer any more threats. While the USA, and its policy of national self determination that was established by Woodrow Wilson in 1919 looked for an open economy. The situation at that current time was vastly misunderstood by the capitalists Americans.

By being Russia a communist country, it followed a belief in which there should be a classless society with equality amongst everyone in terms of living standards, with a self-economy principle (controlled by one party of the government), where all profits should go to the state so that everyone could benefit from, not just shareholders. Where as capitalists on the other hand, followed a belief in which competition was to be the main incentive for efficiency in a society were hard work would determine the profits made and therefore their class in society. In capitalism, there is no equality between the people but opportunity to belong to the class you want if you worked hard enough. The economy is a free economy which acts on the basis of trade amongst countries, where profits go to the shareholders and for the benefit of them only.

At the end of the war, and by 1945, countries were seeking economic recovery. While Russia was trying to grasp into a community with the eastern countries to achieve economical success, USA was trying to indoctrinate the world with Woodrow Wilson's national self determination and trade. USA was trying to achieve an open economy amongst countries with its foreign policy and saw Russian communism as a threat as it seemed like that Russia was trying to expand communism and that would interfere with the trade amongst countries instead of what it really was. It was a self-defence act to try and improve the devastating situation of the war which the capitalist failed to understand.

This misunderstanding was reflected in the Potsdam Conference (Germany, July 1945), which was a conference in which the pos-war settlement agreements were to take place. In this agreement, Germany was to be divided into 4 zones however boundaries were in disagreement. UK and USA were worried about the salami tactics, they recognized the Polish Corridor. However, Truman does not tell Stalin that they have a nuclear bomb. William Williams agrees that it was the USA actions and not the soviet actions. They believe that the Soviet Union cannot be held responsible for the Cold War.

And that it narrowly escaped defeat on WWII and the human and material losses meant a near economic ruin. Confronted by a prosperous United States, whose gross national product doubled during the war, and had a monopoly of atomic weapons. The soviet actions in the process of the development of the Cold War after the acceptance of the demand for the Polish Corridor, increases and Stalin takes the opportunity and uses it as a pretext to establish a communist governments (also referred as the Salami Tactics 1945 - 48) in Eastern Europe which caused alarm in the west. IN the months following Potsdam, the Russians systematically interfered in the countries of Eastern Europe to set up pro-communist governments. This happened in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania and Romania. In some cases their opponents were imprisoned or murdered; in Hungary for example the Russians allowed free elections; but although the communists won less than 20% of the votes, they saw to it that a majority of the cabinet were communists.

By the end of 1947 every state in that area with the exception of Czechoslovakia had a fully communist government. Elections were rigged, non-communists members of coalition governments were expelled, many were arrested and executed, and eventually all other political partners were dissolved. Tension grew when Stalin frightened the west even more with his speech in February 1946 in which he said that communism and capitalism could never live peacefully together, and that future wars were inevitable until the final victory of communism was achieved. This distanced more the relations between communists and capitalists. In march 1946 Fulton Missouri in which Churchill Claimed that the Russians were bent on "indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines". He called for a western alliance, which would stand firm against the communist threat.

"The speech helped to widen the rift between east and west" It was Stalin's methods of gaining control which upset the west, and they gave rise to the next major developments as counter measurements such as the Truman doctrine in 1947. Truman declared that the USA 'would support free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures'. The Truman Doctrine made it clear that the USA had no intention of returning to isolation as she had after the First World War; she was committed to a policy of containing communism, not just in Europe, but throughout the world. Then added the Marshall plan in June 1947, where a Economy recovery programme was set up. which offered economic and financial help wherever it was needed. During the next four years over 13 000 million dollars of Marshall Aid flowed into Western Europe, fostering the recovery of agriculture and industry, which on many countries were in chaos because of war devastation.

This led the build up of future events. This is agreed by the post revisionist theory in which different analysis seeks to avoid blame. The Russian response was immediate in the Berlin Blockade of 1948 to 1949. All road, rail and canal links between West Berlin and West Germany were closed; their aim was to force the west to withdraw from West Berlin by reducing it to starvation point. The westerns were determined to hold on.

Over the next ten months 2 million tons of supplies were airlifted to the blockaded city in a remarkable operation witch kept the 2.5 million West Berliners fed and warm right through the winter. In May 1949 the Russians admitted failure by lifting the blockade. In conclusion it was the USA the main country responsible for the outbreak of the Cold War in the Potsdam Conference of July 1945 as they didn't understand enough the devastated USSR. Truman himself promoted Russian hostility and USA didn't told USSR about the H bombs. The USSR being devastated from the War wanted to recover with the eastern countries and it was the inflexible actions of the USA that take more responsibility. However in the developing of the war, both countries were partially responsible for the build up of events.

The communists used the harsh policies to take advantage of the "opportunistic moment" and spread communism by the Salami Tactics (1945-1948) to gather countries like Poland, Czechoslovakia, Albania and Bulgaria. With the Fulton Speech 1946, differences furthered apart. This led the Capitalist with Truman at the front to counter-measure this threats in the Truman Doctrine (March 1947) and Marshall Aid as they were willing and demanding an open economy. This policy was seen as an act of aggression by the Russian Communists and in result, the Berlin Blockade occurred in June 1948.