Why did the USA and USSR become rivals in the period 1945 to 1949?

1. Why did the USA and USSR become rivals in the period 1945 to 1949? • Historians have disagreed over the answer to this question for decades. • However, the answers given can generally be placed into 4 groups. • The Traditionalists • The Revisionists • The Post Revisionists • The Post-1991 school

2. The Traditionalists • The Soviets were to blame for the Cold War • The Cold War was the direct result of Stalin's aggressive Soviet expansionism. • This view is the traditional view of American and British Historians – particularly before 1960

3. The Revisionists • The US were to blame for the Cold War • The Cold War was caused by the US trying to keep countries capitalist for trade purposes • The USA deliberately intimidated the Soviets e.g. the dropping of the Atomic bomb

4. The Post-Revisionists • The Cold War was neither the USA’s nor the USSR’s fault • The cause was a mutual misunderstanding of each other’s motives • The Cold War was an inevitable result of the situation at the time i.e. 2 superpowers trying to settle the ‘German Question’

5. The Post-1991 school • Inspired by secret documents uncovered after the collapse of communism is Russia • The Cold War was the result of the leaders’ personal faults and fanatical beliefs • The Cold War was a Clash of ideologies – a clash between Capitalism and Communism