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Essay On The Cold War

The Main Causes of the Cold War
By
Diana Jin

Ms. Wood         AP European History
April 1, 2009
The Cold War was the hostile relationship between the USA and the USSR after   World War Ⅱ which led a lot of nations into conflicts. It is called the “Cold War”, because “it never led to armed or ‘hot’ conflicts” . The Cold War started after the alliance between the USA, Britain, and the USSR, which was formed during the Second World War, ended. America and Russia which were the world’s leading superpowers had huge differences in their political beliefs, and other nations who supported each political belief started to form alliances. That caused a division of the world into two conflicting groups: non-communist nations which supported America, and communist nations which supported Russia. The tension created during the Cold War led to a lot of major crises such as the Korean War, “the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Hungary and the Berlin Wall” .
The United States and the USSR feared each other. In 1945 Russia was displeased with the fact that America developed atomic bombs. The Russians were worried that America might use one against them, so they created atomic weapons of their own. With the development of atomic bombs, an arms race between America and Russia started. They both built up stockpiles of missiles and hydrogen bombs, and the tension between the two countries grew dramatically. Since “both Russia and America were ‘super-powers’ with enormous armed forces”   the Americans were afraid of a communist attack, and the Russians were afraid of a capitalist attack.
Not only their fear, but also their hatred of one another had a huge impact on the causes of the Cold War. Even though they had fought together against Germany during the Second World War, they were already “suspicious of each other” . Russia was afraid that America would stab her in the back “in the way Germany had attacked her in 1941.”   Before
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the war Russia...