New to the job and inexperienced, President Truman was the person most responsible for the outbreak

of the Cold War How far do you agree?

President Truman came into power in April 1945, after the sudden death of President Roosevelt. He was new to the job and inexperienced as he had missed out on the Tehran and Yalta meetings. He was completely anti-communist and was highly suspicions of Stalin. Compared to Roosevelt who was more diplomatic and could easily negotiate and compromise with the Soviets. Stalin was uncomfortable with the sudden change and this is where the conflict between East and West started to take off. Stalin was spreading communism to eastern parts of Europe which Americans saw as aggressive and of course Truman was highly suspicious of their acts. He ordered George Kennan to analyse the situation with the Soviets, and it was just as he predicted. In result of George Kennans long telegram Truman put forward to the Congress the Truman Doctrine. It did not seem to the public it was directed towards anyone but it was indefinitely in result of the Soviets and Stalins reckless behaviour. Revisionists often justify that this was one of the main reasons for the start of the Cold War but it the Soviets had not acted so forceful upon the East there would have been no reason for Truman to act. Beforehand, at Westminster College, USA in 1946 Churchill gave out the famous Iron C urtain Speech. Truman was present for this accusation of communism, which ultimately meant that he agreed with every word Churchill said. The American public did not like this because they were not aware that this was even going in Europe. Stalin saw this act as warmongering and saw Churchill and Truman deliberately trying to get the public in a frantic. The Iran Crisis of 1946 is a justifiable reason for the Soviets aggressive manner to gain power and spread communism. They completely defied their agreement with the Americans when they should have backed out. This was Stalins fault and it gave Truman an excuse to threaten the Soviets. If Stalin had not have gone with this endeavour Truman would not have had to threaten him and there would be means of less conflict. The Marshall Plan allowed aid for European countries in sufficient reason that they became or remained capitalist and allowed free trade with the USA. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (appointed by the Americans) needed to be executed in order to get the Japanese to finally surrender. Truman purposefully did not tell Stalin before the Potsdam Conference because he was afraid of Stalins thoughts and did not trust him with this secret. Understandable, as Stalin already knew because he had spies watching over the Americans plans. This again shows that Stalin is not trustworthy and that he could be incorporating lies and secrets into all of his operations.

The Berlin Blockade of 194__ is according to the Orthodox school of thought Overall,