The United States was primarily responsible for instigating the Cold War

Thanks for accepting, TN05! I look forward to an interesting debate :D FRAMEWORK: In order to show that the United States was primarily responsible for instigating the Cold War, I will attempt to identify some of the major events and trends directly leading up to the advent of the Cold War and explain how the United States was the main agitator in each of those situations; it is only logical that if an entity is responsible for the majority of an event's causes, we consider that entity primarily responsible for the event itself as well. Additionally, since my opponent is likely to try pinning the blame primarily on the Soviet Union, I will also work to demonstrate the USSR's limited role in instigating the Cold War, thus delivering a pre-emptive blow to Con's case early on. ====================== ROAD TO THE COLD WAR ====================== In order to discuss the instigation of the Cold War, we must first start with the Truman Doctrine, widely acknowledged to be its "starting point". The Truman Doctrine was created in 1947, declaring the United States' intent to provide political/economic aid to any and all democratic nations suffering from an internal or external threat. This may seem like a very philanthropic action on the part of the United States, but upon closer inspection, we see that the motives were not so noble. The Truman Doctrine arose from the US's initial response to a civil war between the Greek government and the Greek Communist party; there was absolutely no need to interfere with such a peripheral conflict, especially since there was nothing particularly 'atrocious' happening there. Moreover, the Soviets had no involvement whatsoever in the conflict, abstaining from backing the Communist party at all [1]. It was the United Sates who intervened first, providing support to the Greek government with no legitimate justification, other than the irrational fear of the potential increase in the USSR's sphere of influence that could result from the spread of Communism. Basically, the Truman Doctrine was simply a jealous move by the United States, aimed at restricting the power of a rival superpower by promoting their own ideology and putting themselves in the 'global spotlight'. This aspect of the Truman Doctrine led to the more important part of its legacy-- it marked "the beginning of the long process by which the United States became a world policeman, committing resources and manpower all over the world in a futile attempt to contain a mythical monolith, the international Communist conspiracy," [2]. In other words, it marked the beginning of 'Containment'-- the American practice of trying to spread Democracy and Capitalism to as many countries as possible in order to hinder the spread of Communism and Soviet expansion in general. The policy of Containment was not only completely unjustified, but it was also the major reason that many of the military conflicts associated with the Cold War happened at all, including the Korean and Vietnamese Wars [3]. In summary, the United States initiated the Truman Doctrine with virtually no prior Soviet aggression-- it was a jealous move by a power-hungry superpower-- and as a result, the policy of Containment was initiated, which went on to serve as the primary driving force of the Cold War. Another area of interest when considering the causes of the Cold War is the formation of NATO in 1949, which was perhaps the closest thing resembling a declaration of war on the part of the United States. It was an international military alliance which, though not explicitly, made it exceedingly clear that its primary purpose was simply the exclusion of the Soviet Union. "'To keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down,' that was how NATO's first secretary general characterized the purpose of the military alliance after it was formed in 1949," [4]. It is only to be expected that the Soviets would react defensively, and most certainly negatively, in the face of such hostility from practically the entire Western world. It was these two events together that formed the basis of much of the tension which started and fueled the Cold War for the next half century of world history, and since both were almost entirely the direct responsibility of the United States, the only rational conclusion that can be drawn is that the United States is the primary instigator of the Cold War. ====================== IN DEFENSE OF THE USSR ====================== In response to much of what I have said above, I anticipate that my opponent will make the argument that the USSR surely must have done something significant to earn the ire of the United States and the Western European nations. But this is simply false; coming out of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union were allies, and Stalin wanted to keep it that way-- it was the irrational fear and large ambitions of the new superpower known as the United States which led up to the Cold War. "In 'Inside the Kremlin's Cold War: from Stalin to Khrushchev' (1997), the Russian historians Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov, use de-classified Soviet documents to analyse Stalin"s part in causing the Cold War. They reveal a fanatic belief in Communism, lots of personal faults and mistakes, but " above all " a genuine desire to avoid confrontation with the USA" [5]. Between the end of the World War and the Truman Doctrine, there were no acts of Soviet aggression towards any Western power, nor were there even any acts of substantial political expansion on their part. The only event which the Soviets can be considered even partially to blame for is the Berlin Blockade, and even that happened *in retaliation* to the Truman Doctrine and similar acts of early 'containment' such as the Marshall Plan and the London Program. Furthermore, there was nothing technically wrong with what the Soviet did in the Berlin Blockade, as it was all on their own turf. "[T]he Soviets imposed a complete blockade on Berlin. Railways and highways were restricted so that no surface traffic between the western zones and Berlin could occur. The Soviets were able to do this without breaking any international laws on a technicality; the west and the Soviet Union never made a written pact in regards to the right of western ground access to Berlin. It must be noted that at the time of the blockade Stalin did not give any ultimatums, and while the blockade was in place the Soviets did keep the door open to negotiations on the matter. As a matter of fact, Stalin curiously quipped to a western diplomat during the blockade, 'We are still allies.'" [6]. Examining the historical evidence objectively, we see that the Soviet Union really did nothing to deserve the hostility of the United States; the events leading up to the Cold War were all caused by the United States without any real provocation from the Soviet Union. The resolution is affirmed. ___________________________________________________________________________ [1] https://history.state.gov... [2] http://www.foreignaffairs.com... [3] http://chnm.gmu.edu... [4] http://www.dw.de... [5] http://www.johndclare.net... [6] http://www.coldwar.org...