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Was the Cold War Inevitable?
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ARTS1271 ESSAY
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16th September, 2011
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The orthodox view of the Cold War elucidates its inevitability due to the great ideological differences that existed between the Soviet Union and United States. On the other hand, the revisionists argued that it happened due to the actions that Soviets took and the consequential responses made by the United States as a result of their inflexible, single-sided interpretations of Soviet action. Yet, even with the backdrop of the early Bolshevik conflict in 1918 as well …show more content…

However, this was not the case. While Soviet policy aimed at countries of Eastern Europe did not clarify her motivations of complete political domination, the United States government “undertook a deliberate policy to prevent the establishment of legitimate Soviet” political relations on her Western front. Along with United States, European divisions also harboured the belief that Stalin’s insistence upon allied agreement to his territorial demands had the specific motive of Soviet establishment as the dominant power in Eastern Europe. In all, it was Soviet aggressive demands and fundamental rejection by the western world that to a major extent caused the Cold War to become inevitable.
Combined with the aggression of Soviet actions and demands, the United States’ immovable, adamant perception of these actions made the Cold War unpreventable. It did not matter what the real intentions of Soviet actions were, whether it be for the security of its nation or for expansionist reasons. The Americans ultimately reached one interpretation; that Soviet aggression aimed to dominate Eastern Europe and spread communist socialist influence to other nations. Thus, it created fears that their democratic liberal ideals were threatened if their “powerful