The Cold War

2 Pages 505 Words

The Cold War can basically be summed up by two statements, the first by Alexis de Tocqueville, “There are now two great nations in the world, which starting from different points, seem to be advancing toward the same goal: the Soviets and the Americans, each seems called by some secret design of providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world. The second statement by Fred Inglis, “They made it, of course; they drew the iron curtain across the middle of Europe, partly to stop us looking in, partly to stop their own poor wretches looking out enviously at the boundless goods and comforts on our side. Behind the iron curtain were the hapless peoples held captive by the grim-faced Russians and their stooges in office in the satellites; in front of it were ourselves, expressing sympathy for the captives but apologetically remaining very thoroughly armed, in however subdued a way.
To pinpoint the factors that contributed to the Cold War, we must first start with World War II itself. America was fighting two wars on two different fronts, protecting itself from future attacks and at the same time promoting democracy. The Soviets fighting a war in Europe and their western borders, against Nazi Germany, were trying to expand their buffer zone against future attacks by claiming eastern European countries. Then transform them into communist controlled states, all loyal to Moscow.
On February 4, 1945 Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt met for the Yalta Conference. What came out of the Yalta Conference was that the Soviets were to keep control of the territory it seized in 1939 from Poland, and that Europe was to be split up into four different zones. On July 25, 1945 the Potsdam Conference was held, by this time the U.S. could start seeing that Stalin had an agenda of his own. Stalin in violation of the Yalta Conference set up a pro Soviet government in Poland. On March 12, 1946 the...