To take the perspective of the traditionalist historian in placing the blame of origin of the Cold War solely upon the Soviet Union is orthodox and somewhat reasonable if only one frame, out of the context of long decades of conflict, is examined. But before critics quickly sway to the extreme of siding with US Naval War historian Eugene V Rostow in claiming, "The cold war was caused by the USSR's 'imperial appetite'", it is crucial to understand why revisionists like the celebrated William A. Williams would argue the opposite. Soviet policies between 1945 and 1949 did play an essential role to the build up and outbreak of the tension between the USSR and USA, but not to the extent of ...view middle of the document...
Those who reiterate that the Soviet Union was greedy and expansive, a new fascist Germany on the rise, cannot present a firm case against the countries' intent at the post-war conferences, where all of the conflict in the Cold War surfaced.Even so, evidence that the USSR's policies triggered more dissention can be found in Salami Tactics (c.1945) wherein Soviet leader Stalin pressured all the eastern European countries into Communist governments. The Hungarian Communist Rakosi's idea made it possible for the country to acquire influence over Albania, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany, somewhat respectively. This expansionist seeming tactic arose justifiable concern from the United States, but was not enough of an incentive for the political initiatives in the breaking down of diplomacy that soon followed.The breakdown of American-Soviet diplomacy was triggered and initiated by the US alone, as seen through the Fulton Speech, Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan. As Stalin himself commented on Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech of February 1946, in the Russian newspaper Pravda, "Mr. Churchill has called for a war on the USSR." Evidence that Churchill himself had formerly agreed upon Stalin's claims for the eastern European is existent and President Truman's support for supposed democracy and freedom is juxtaposed by his hypocrisy in loyalty to a British empire that still held coercive colonial power over dozens of countries on almost every continent. Not only so, Truman's anti-Communist proof is also ostensibly loosely based around the Long Telegram which was sent by a limited source only a month prior, which boisterously accused Russians of being "determined to destroy the American way of life and will do everything they could to oppose America." The acerbic speech was closely followed by the Truman Doctrine in which the President staked American responsibility in the protection of the people's freedom, ways of life, and the process of " work[ing] out their own destiny" and presented the idea of 'containment'. Again, America's obvious economic and selfish motivation is masqueraded and the honorable duty to interfere in any foreign countries' politics as the US sees fit is implied. Hypocritical and unconstructive diplomacy as such were surely bound to upset any country in question, rousing tension and stagnation in relationship, not to mention a somewhat already xenophobic government like that of the Soviet Union.Lastly, ortho...
