The Soviet Union was to be blamed for starting the Cold War.

How far do you agree with this statement? The Soviet Union was to be blamed for starting the Cold War. This was because the SU was very aggressive during the Berlin Blockade. The SU blocked all road and rail links between western Berlin and west Germany in order to force the people of west Berlin to surrender to Soviet rule. To the USA, this was an aggressive act as it showed that the SU tried to take west Berlin for itself. Hence, as the SU provoked the USA during the Berlin Blockade, it should be blamed for worsening the relations between the superpowers and starting the Cold War. However, the Soviet Union should not be totally blamed for starting the Cold War. The USA should be blamed too. After the

war ended, the USA withdrew financial aid to the USSR even though it did not suffer much damage during the war and could afford to continue to give aid. This was devastating to the USSR as it suffered massive damage during WWII. The withdrawal of aid by the US made Stalin very suspicious of the USA as he felt that the US was deliberately trying to keep the USSR weak. Therefore, the USA should be blamed for starting the Cold War as its actions aroused Stalins suspicions and worsened relations between the two. The Soviet Union was not to be blamed for starting the Cold War because it was the ideological differences that caused the Cold War. The USA was a capitalist country where people are free to trade and accumulate profits. On the other hand, the USSR was a communist country where the government controlled the economy and profit-making was not allowed. The

governments of the two countries are also totally different. The USA was a democracy where people chose the government through free elections. The USSR was a one-party state where elections were fixed. As the two systems are totally different and each side believed its system was superior, conflict was unavoidable. Hence, the ideological differences should be blamed for starting the Cold War. In conclusion, I disagree with the statement because I think that the ideological differences should be blamed for starting the Cold War. The ideological differences between the two superpowers caused Stalin to want to swallow west Berlin for himself. Similarly, the ideological differences caused US to withdraw aid to the USSR as the USSR was now an enemy in the opposite camp.

Since the ideological differences was the fundamental cause of the Cold War, the Soviet Union should not be blamed totally for starting the Cold War.