Cold War - causes, and is it possible to avoid?

I studied the Cold War very briefly during high school, and as of now my memory of what we learned is hazy at best. We focussed mainly on Vietnam as a conflict and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Today I read the thread about the US, UK and France going to war with the USSR over an event in Yugoslavia in 1944, and it got me thinking.

Ignoring this event entirely, the USSR was a firm ally of the west during WWII. Can someone please remind me why this alliance fell apart and the Cold War ensued? Was it solely because of the rigged (or lack of) elections in Eastern Europe leading to what were essentially Soviet colonies in the Iron Curtain? Is it possible for Stalin to actually allow these nations to choose for themselves, or was his personality far too dead set on a communist world?

What I'm asking is, do the world's two superpowers, the USA and the USSR, have to be enemies post WWII?
 
Well they'd certainly be massibe ideological and economic enemies at best. I can't see a world where they coexist without tensions like the Cold War. Maybe less overt hostility but its a rough world nontheless.
 
Yes, a US-Soviet Great Game is inevitable. If nothing else in the end of WWII, the Soviets have made the greatest territorial gains, with the most powerful army in Europe. Soviet security means that the Yalta promises will never be anything but something told to ensure that the West hears what it wants to hear, Communist buffer zones are always preferable to anything vaguely anti-Soviet, particularly with WWII and recovery from it right fresh in memory. The Allies of WWII were never buddy-buddy even with it being as far as the USA and USSR were concerned purely about defeating Hitler. Roosevelt was never anything remotely pro-Soviet, the Soviets for their part were never remotely inclined to yield world revolution.

For democracy, the defeat of one totalitarian by another, and the great military triumph of Communism can only be seen as a threat, the Soviets were more rational than the Nazis (which is damning them with faint praise albeit), but were all the same a regime ruled by an all-powerful dictator and one who will always be a zealous enemy of capitalism and democracy. For the Soviets the legacy of WWII will mean a buffer zone is an immediate necessity and democracy is too complicated for this, meaning any promises of democracy aren't about to be fulfilled. This buffer zone and recovery from WWII will be concurrent with desires to foster the hard-won superpower status and this in itself will be something the USA is unlikely to escape.

TL;DR: Yes, a Cold War is inevitable, no US-USSR alliance will last out the end of the war very long. This is not dependent on who the President is.
 

MSZ

Banned
The Cold War was the result of the Soviets and their Communist ideology challenging the west and the "ideology" of capitalism. A state of "cold war" existed in Europe at least since the Congress of Vienna, only then it was called the "Concert of Europe" - the competition being between states, not ideologies, non of which sought to completely destroy the standing social order. Even in the Inter War era relations between the Soviet Union and it's neighbours were very akin to the Cold War - only smaller in scale.

The rigged elections in Eastern Europe was just one of the things that led to the Cold War - essentially it was Stalin not sticking to the provisions of his agreements with the USA and UK. The USSR was not a firm ally of choice of the west, it was an ally of necessity whom only the USA trusted. Should Stalin stay true to his word and allow for free elections in Europe, joint administration of Germany, not supporting Maoist rebels in China, etc. it could have been avoided - there would still be tension of course, but it would more akin to the post-1989 situation. It would however require a completly different Russian leadership, not just eliminating Stalin.
 
Also, the USSR and the West were hardly 'firm allies', they were allies of convenience and both sides knew it. (well maybe FDR didn't:))

The white washing that had to happen to get the western public to accept benevolent "Uncle Joe" was a massive and effective piece of propaganda.

Hitler seriously thought that he could get the capitalist West to join him on a crusade against the godless commies. OK, so Hitler was deluded in many ways, but that was one of his lesser delusions. Remember that the West had sent military forces to fight the Reds less than 20 years before.

So... The wonder isn't that the Alliance split, it's that it held together in the first place. (Hitler was his own worst enemy.)

The above is a slight exaggeration, but not much.
 
Top