I. There is a divergence in opinions about who was to blame for the Cold War. Read the preface and agree or disagree with the statements that follow. Ground your opinion.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 484.

DISCUSSION

Russian historians blamed Churchill (the British Prime Minister) and Truman (the American president, 1945–1953). They said Truman and Churchill wanted to destroy the USSR, which was just defending itself.

At first, western writers blamed Russia. They said Stalin was trying to build up a Soviet empire. Later, however, some western historians blamed America. They said Truman had not understood how much Russia had suffered in the Second World War.

Later still, historians think BOTH sides were to blame – that there were hatreds on both sides.

Most recently, historians agree that the Cold War was primarily a clash of beliefs - Communism versus Capitalism.

Agree or Disagree:

1) The Cold War was caused by the conflicting interests of the United States and the U.S.S.R., compounded by miscommunication and poor diplomacy. The differences in the cultures of the American political leaders and their moral and righteous justifications for diplomacy from Soviet leaders' communist expansionist policies led to the unraveling of the new international order nearly established in Roosevelt's wartime conferences with Churchill and Stalin.

2) The Cold War was caused by the social climate and tension in Europe at the end of World War II and by the increasing power struggles between the Soviet Union and the United States. Economic separation between the Soviets and the West also heightened tensions, along with the threat of nuclear war.

3) Despite the divergence of opinion concerning the origin and nature of the Cold War, there is an increasing consensus that shapes Cold War historiography. While scholars may have been blinded by loyalty and guilt in examining the evidence regarding the origins of the Cold War in the past, increasingly, scholars with greater access to archival evidence on all sides have come to the conclusion that the conflicting and unyielding ideological ambitions were the source of the complicated and historic tale that was the Cold War.