History assignment

Who was to blame for the Cold War?

Introduction
There were many reasons for the war to have started and so there is no
complete right answer to the statement above, however, I will state my points
for both sides and state which side of the argument I agree with the most.
Background
First a little background on the Cold war, this was the geopolitical tension
between the Soviet Union and the United States and their respective allies
after the second world war.
There are other reasons for the Cold War to have started but the main
reasons come from different ideologies, the US were capitalists and the Soviet
Union were communists. USA didn’t want another dictator to take over Europe
and they feared that Stalin would treat East Europeans badly and Britain was
upset at how the Russians had set up a pro-communist government in Poland.
Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference
At the Yalta conference in 1945 the allies had agreed to split Germany into 4
zones, one for each power and the same was to happen to Berlin. The borders
of Poland were going to change again and Eastern Europe was to hold their
own elections.
Once Germany was defeated the Potsdam conference took place.
President Roosevelt had died and was replaced by Truman and he was very
anti-communist. He wasn’t happy that Poland was being set up by a
communist government and the reparation size was too large to him. The
Americans had also developed an atomic bomb which made Truman believe
that they were stronger than the USSR. In the battle against Japan, the USA
dropped the bomb without informing the Soviet Union. This is when their
allyship fell apart
USSR gaining control of Eastern Europe and America’s action
Since Russia had lost 20 million soldiers war, they requested for reparations by
making a friendly zone as a way for Russia to never get invaded again. Since
communists that were exiled during war had gone to Moscow, Churchill
agreed to Eastern Europe becoming a “sphere of influence.” Gradually
countries in Eastern Europe became communist-dominated. Churchill had
declared that an iron curtain had come down on across Europe and Stalin took
this as a declaration of war, he set up a Comi tern to ensure they followed
soviet rule. USA’s reaction to all this was creating the Truman doctrine (Help
offered to countries whose governments were being threatened) and the
Marshall Aid (funds for getting Europe’s economy going again), however, Stalin
forbade any communist countries from signing up.
What were the consequences of the Berlin Blockade?
USA, France and Britain decided to make their 4 separate Berlin zones into 1 so
that it was split into East and West Berlin. The Easterners were allowed to see
the West and the benefits of capitalism. Stalin thought that this would turn
them anti-communist. The West side had also created their own currency to
improve trade. After that Stalin cut off all railway transits to West Berlin in an
attempt to starve them. This is how the Berlin blockade came about. The west
was then supplied with materials by air. The consequences of this included: No
trust between the east and west, west lost 100 million dollars, hatred of the
americans and soviets increased, NATO was created and the Warsaw pact was
created. Later (318 days later), Stalin let the west stay capitalist as long as the
east stayed communist. The iron curtain became permanent and the Cold war
broke out into an arms race.
Conclusion: Who was more to blame for starting the Cold war?
Stalin desired to dominate the world through communism and his take over of
East Europe was his first step and first threat. The US wanted to manage their
sphere of influence without intervention but they wouldn’t let the Soviets
manage their own, so the Soviets actions were seen as defensive. All in all it
was neither of their faults and the cold war was bound to happen.