Introduction
* Describe briefly the events in the final year of WWII in 1945 * Russo-American relations in 1945
Body
Agreement that the final year of WWII caused hostility between USA and USSR in Cold War
Potsdam conference * Churchill’s suspicions on Stalin * Not agreed on how to disarm, demilitarize, de-Nazify and divide Germany * Truman’s hard line on Eastern European affairs * Truman’s suspicion on Poland’s government predominantly controlled by Lublin Poles
Atomic bomb on Japan * USA refused to share technology with USSR
Death of Roosevelt in April 1945, * Truman is more suspicious about Stalin
Red Army in Poland and Eastern Europe * USA becomes suspicious on Stalin’s view of “free elections”
Disagreement that the final year of WWII caused hostility between USA and USSR in Cold War
Long Term
Different ideology of USA and USSR, both factions believed that their systems worked best * Economic, political and social differences * Great Contest suggested by Deutscher – conflict between two rival social systems that started as soon the Bolsheviks rose to power after the November 1917 Revolution
Bolshevik revolution * Riga Axioms resulted from this revolution because USA was suspicious on USSR’s European influence, USA was already sceptical about USSR’s proletariat revolution * Howard Roffman suggested that the Cold War started “from the very moment the Bolsheviks triumphed in Russia in 1917”
Short Term
USSR’s pacts with Germany * Nazi Soviet Pact (1939) arose suspicion in the USA, the state was not sure on USSR’s trustworthiness
Stalin’s decision in Poland regarding the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, he suspiciously intervened lately to establish order between the Polish rebels and Nazi army. * Arose suspicion in the USA
Historical Views
Orthodox historians believed that a Marxist Leninist system would challenge the free world through a global revolution, even without the outbreak of WWII. * USSR’s wish to “liberate” oppressed workers in capitalist countries through a proletarian revolution * Lenin had suggested that clashes between the Soviet republic and the bourgeois states were inevitable
Revisionist historians believe that the Open Door policy aimed at dominating other countries economically. * “Dollar imperialism” was seen as an American intention to impose an economic dominion * Argument that USA entered war mainly for economic reason: Japan and Germany were a threat to USA’s leading economy
Post-revisionist view avoids in giving the blame to just one of the superpowers. * Roosevelt was more lenient towards Stalin because he partially ignored his advisers who suggested a hard line relationship with the USSR, these people were William Averell Harriman (US ambassador in the USSR since 1943) and General John Deane (head of the US military mission in Moscow) * On the other hand, Truman followed the advice of those officials believing he was continuing Roosevelt’s foreign policy * The abrupt change caused Soviet suspicions
Conclusion
* Summarize content * State your own judgement on the topic and explain reason
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