Traditionalists, Revisionists, and Post-revisionists

There are three major ideas on which of the two nations was the cause of the Cold War, the traditionalists believed the Soviet Union was the cause for the Cold War, while the revisionists believed the United States were the cause. The Post-revisionists believed neither the Soviet nor the United States were to blame. The revisionist argument is the most accurate because the United States aggressive open-trade policies and their actions against the Soviet Union caused the Cold War.

The United States idea for free trade throughout the world caused a major conflict between the Soviets and the Americans. Initially, Roosevelt tried to assuage the problems between the two nations that were caused by the differing ideologies. In the Yalta Conference both sides believed they were all making an important agreement which was favorable for their sides. However, “the Soviet interpretation of the accords differed so sharply from the Anglo-American interpretation” leading to a bigger conflict between the two. As a result, Soviet kept their principles of spreading communism throughout Eastern Europe. On April 23, 1945 Truman initiates his “get tough” policy, and speaks to Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov and “sharply chastised him for violations of the Yalta accords” (Brinkley 755). Further disagreements occurred when the two powers failed to agree on the situation in Poland or Germany. The Soviets should have the most power of the situation in Poland because they liberated Poland and had the right to determine the government, which it should have. This rule was abided by for the Allies in their liberation of France and Italy. The United States was at fault here because they were being unfair and not allowing the Soviet their end of the deal. This situation caused a major animosity between the two nations, which was a great factor in the start of the Cold War. Furthermore, the United States acted unjustly when they refused to accept the Communist Chinese government as the legitimate government of China. As a result, the Soviet Union boycotted the United Nations, “to protest the council’s refusal to recognize the new communist government of China” (Brinkley 768). This gave the Soviets the impression the United States was not willing to accept any communist nation, as it had rejected the USSR when it was first established after the Bolshevik’s revolution, and more recently rejected the Communist Chinese government.