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Who Started the Cold War: The U.S. or the Soviet Union?
Round One:
Document Who started the Cold War? Supporting evidence from document

Iron Curtain Speech

(March 1946)

Clifford Memorandum to
President Truman
(September 1946)

Hypothesis A: Who was responsible for starting the Cold War: the United States or the Soviet
Union?

Round Two:
Document Who started the Cold War? Supporting evidence from document

Wallace Letter to
President Truman (March
1946)

Soviet Ambassador
Novikov Report
(September 1946)

Hypothesis B: Who was responsible for starting the Cold War: the United States or the Soviet
Union?

Round Three:
Document Who started the Cold War? Supporting evidence from document

The Global Cold War

(2005)

Final Hypothesis: Who was responsible for starting the Cold War: the United States or the
Soviet Union?
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Central Historical Question: Who Started the Cold War?

Document A: Excerpt from the Iron Curtain Speech

Delivered by British Politician Winston Churchill at Fulton,
Missouri, March 1946:

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain

has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the
capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe.
Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest,
and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around
them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject,
in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very
high and in some cases increasing measure of control from
Moscow. In a great number of countries, far from the Russia
frontiers and throughout the world, Communist fifth columns
(secret agents / traitors) are established and work in complete
unity and absolute obedience to the directions they receive from
the Communist center. I do not believe that Soviet Russia desires
war. What they desire is the fruits of war and the indefinite
(unlimited) expansion of their power and doctrines (beliefs). But
what we have to consider here today while time remains, is the
permanent prevention of war and the establishment of freedom
and democracy as rapidly as possible in all countries.

Document B: Excerpt from White House Aide Clark M.

Clifford, Memorandum to President Truman, September
24, 1946:

The primary objective (goal) of United States policy toward the

Soviet Union is to convince Soviet leaders that it is in their
interest to participate in a system of world cooperation, that there
are no fundamental causes for war between our two nations, and
that the security and prosperity of the Soviet Union, and that of
the rest of the world as well, is being jeopardized (threatened)
by aggressive militaristic imperialism (trying to control the
worlds resources) such as that in which the Soviet Union is now
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engaged. However, these same leaders with whom we hope to
achieve an understanding on the principles of international peace
appear to believe that a war with the United States and the other
leading capitalistic nations is inevitable (definitely going to
happen). They are increasing their military power and the sphere
of Soviet influence in preparation for the inevitable conflict, and
they are trying to weaken and subvert their political opponents by
every means at their disposal. So long as these men adhere to
these beliefs, it is highly dangerous to conclude that hope of
international peace lies only in accord, mutual understanding,
or solidarity (peace) with the Soviet Union...The language of
military power is the only language which disciples (followers) of
power politics will understand. The United States must use that
language [because][c]ompromise and concessions are
consideredby the Sovietsto be evidences of weakness and
they are encouraged by our retreats to make new and greater
demands. The main deterrent (obstacle) to Soviet attack on the
United States, or to attack on areas of the world which are vital to
out security, will be the military power of this countryThe
prospect (possibility) of defeat is the only sure means of
deterring the Soviet Union.

Document C: Excerpt from Secretary of Commerce Henry

A. Wallace, Letter to President Truman, July 1946:

I have been increasingly disturbed about the trend of

international affairs since the end of the war, and I am even more
troubled by the apparently growing feeling among the American
people that another war is coming and that the only way that we
can head it off is to arm ourselves to the teeth. Yet all of past
history indicates that an armaments (weapons) race does not
lead to peace but to war. The months just ahead may well be the
crucial period which will decide whether the civilized world will go
down in destruction after the five or ten years needed for several
nations to arm themselves with atomic bombsHow do American
actions since V-J (Victory Over Japan) Day appear to other
nations? I mean by actions the concrete things like $13 billion for
the War and Navy Departments, the Bikini (Island) tests of the
atomic bomb and continued production of the bombs, the plan to
arm Latin America with our weaponsand the effort to secure air
bases spread over half the globe from which the other half of the
globe can be bombedThese factsmake it appear either 1) that
we are preparing ourselves to win the war which we regard as
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inevitable or 2) that we are trying to build upforce to intimidate
(scare) the rest of mankind. How would it look to us if Russia had
the atomic bomb and we did not, if Russia had 10,000-mile
bombers and air bases within a thousand miles of our coast lines
and we did not?...As the strongest single nation, and the nation
whose leadership is followed by the entire world with the
exception of RussiaI believe that we have the opportunity to
lead the world to peace.

Document D: Excerpt from Soviet Ambassador Nikolai

Novikov Report on the U.S. Drive for World Supremacy,
September 1946:

The foreign policy of the United States, which reflects the

imperialist tendencies of American monopolistic (one person /
country in control) capital (money), is characterized in the
postwar period by a striving (desire) for world supremacy. This is
the real meaning of the many statements by President Truman
and other representatives of American ruling circles; that the
United States has the right to lead the world. All the forces of
American diplomacythe army, the air force, the navy, industry,
and scienceare enlisted in the service of this foreign policyThe
present policy of the American government with regard to the
U.S.S.R. is also directed at limiting or dislodging the influence of
the Soviet Union from neighboring countries. In implementing
(carrying out) this policythe United States attemptsto
support reactionary forces for the purpose of creating obstacles to
the process of democratization (becoming a democracy) of
these countries. In so doing, it also attempts to secure (put)
American capital into their economiesThe numerous and hostile
(angry) statements by American government, political, and
military figures with regard to the Soviet Union and its foreign
policy are very characteristic of the current relationship between
the ruling circles of the United States and the U.S.S.R.At the
present time, preaching war against the Soviet Union is not a
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monopoly of the far-right, yellow (extreme) American press
represented by the newspaper associations of Hearst and
McCormick. This anti-Soviet campaign also has been joined by
therespectable organizations of the conservative press, such
as the New York Times and New York Herald Tribune.

Document E: Excerpt from Historian Odd Westad, The

Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the
Making of Our Times (2005):

Both the United States and Soviet Union induced (brought

about) cultural (customs / way of life), demographic
(population), and ecological (relationship between people
and their environment) change in Third World
(underdeveloped / do not have many resources) societies
and used military power to defeat those who resisted. (397) As a
result, ethnicity and religion were central (important) values to
many political activists in the Third World because they were
exactly those values that Cold War ideologies (beliefs)
attempted to deny. (400)