In my opinion, the USSR/Soviets were responsible for the start of the Cold War.
Although it is very true that the United States tried to show dominance and fear through the usage of the atomic bomb, it was not the USSR's job to stand up to the US, creating their own nuclear bombs and reneging on their agreements to allow the people of Eastern Europe to determine their own fates(by imposing totalitarian rule on territories behind the "Iron Curtain").
The Soviet Union promised to free elections in Poland and in the other East European countries. However in 1947(which is initially when the free election was to happen), most of the Socialist and Polish Peasant Party candidates were sent to jail. The ones that supported them were subdue'd by the secret police.
They continuously showed aggressive expansion, eventually forcing other nations to help the US control this country from becoming an uncontrollably powerful nation.
There are two documents I found to be non-trustworthy. The Truman Doctrine is told by President Truman to Congress. It is biased because it states how the United States is the "protecting force of freedom and peace," which is not entirely true - towards the end of the Cold War, the United States only becomes more and more similar to the USSR. The audience is Congress, who make the political choices in the United States. To convince Congress, some facts were probable to be enlarged in order to manipulate choices the way Truman would have wanted. The Iron Curtain Speech is told by Winston Churchill to the citizens of Missouri. Great Britain and the United States were anti-communist. "In a great number of countries, far from the Russian frontiers and throughout the world, Communist fifth columns are established and work in complete unity and absolute obedience to the directions they receive from the communist center."
Although it is very true that the United States tried to show dominance and fear through the usage of the atomic bomb, it was not the USSR's job to stand up to the US, creating their own nuclear bombs and reneging on their agreements to allow the people of Eastern Europe to determine their own fates(by imposing totalitarian rule on territories behind the "Iron Curtain").
The Soviet Union promised to free elections in Poland and in the other East European countries. However in 1947(which is initially when the free election was to happen), most of the Socialist and Polish Peasant Party candidates were sent to jail. The ones that supported them were subdue'd by the secret police.
They continuously showed aggressive expansion, eventually forcing other nations to help the US control this country from becoming an uncontrollably powerful nation.
There are two documents I found to be non-trustworthy. The Truman Doctrine is told by President Truman to Congress. It is biased because it states how the United States is the "protecting force of freedom and peace," which is not entirely true - towards the end of the Cold War, the United States only becomes more and more similar to the USSR. The audience is Congress, who make the political choices in the United States. To convince Congress, some facts were probable to be enlarged in order to manipulate choices the way Truman would have wanted. The Iron Curtain Speech is told by Winston Churchill to the citizens of Missouri. Great Britain and the United States were anti-communist. "In a great number of countries, far from the Russian frontiers and throughout the world, Communist fifth columns are established and work in complete unity and absolute obedience to the directions they receive from the communist center."
good use of quotes from the speeches and maybe a little bit more information on Churchill's speech would have been nice.
ReplyDeleteI somewhat agree with your point, as Soviet did attempt to expand, however, I believe that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima truly, started the cold war, as it demonstrated weapons of mass destruction, and the US being a very powerful country, and this event lead to US possibly trying to spread Democracy until, the Soviets took the plans for them bombs for themselves.
ReplyDeleteFor the two documents you found to be non-trustworthy, I agree with your point that the Truman Doctrine and the Iron Curtain Speech. However in my case, I argued that they were untrustworthy as the motive of the speech would be to convince audience who would be listening. Even though our reasons are different, I see how your reason is also true.
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