Nature of the origins and early development

Definitions
Cold War: The intense economic, political and ideological rivalry (short of military conflict) after World War II between the Soviet Union and its satellites and the democratic countries of the Western world, under the leadership of the United States

Ideology: The body of doctrine, myth, belief, etc. that guides and individual, social movement, institution, class, or large group.

Origins

 * The Russian Revolution (1918-1921)
 * USA - supported the Royalists (supporter of the Tsar Regime)
 * Bolshevik memory of the support never left

Schools of thought of the Causes of the War
Historians can generally be placed into four groups:
 * 1) The Traditionalists
 * 2) The Revisionists
 * 3) The Post Revisionists
 * 4) The Post 1991 School

The Traditionalists/Orthodox - Initial development
The Soviet Union was to blame for the Cold War, and the Cold War was a direct result of Stalin's aggressive Soviet expansionism.

The Revisionists - 1950's-1960's
The US was to blame for the cold war, as they were trying to keep countries capitalists for trade purposes. The US was also responsible for instigating USSR fears by threatening and intimidating them with the Atomic Bomb. They believed their policy was a large issue in causing the war, by attempting to stop the spread of communism and undermine Soviet influence in the European continent.

Containment:

 * First practiced in 1947 in Greece
 * Local communists fought against existing Monarchy
 * The US gave $400 in aid to Greece to help fight Communists
 * Korea 1950-53
 * Vietnam 1965-75
 * NATO 1949
 * The Proxy Wars

Post-Revisionists - Post Cold War
Post-revisionists believed that the Cold War was not the fault of either country, rather the fault of the leaders. The case was a mutual misunderstanding of the motives of each country, and that the Cold War was an inevitability as two superpowers attempted to solve "the German question" simultaneously.

The German Question
"How can we prevent Germany from becoming powerful enough to attack its neighbours again?"

Russian perspective:

 * Russians took very high casualties in order to capture Berlin in May 1945
 * They took great effort to capture all points in Germany, but were stopped by German democrats
 * They wanted total control over Germany, however had to secede some power to the Western Allies

American Perspective:

 * America wanted freedom and capitalism to reign in Germany, whilst holding trading influence over the nation

Increasing Tensions

 * East and West Germany created through the division of Berlin (1948)
 * Berlin Blockade (1948-1949)
 * NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Association (1949)
 * Russia achieves the Atomic Bomb in Kazakhstan (August 1949)
 * China becomes a Communist state (October 1949)

Decreasing Tensions

 * March 1953 - Death of Stalin, Nikita Krushchev takes full control by 1955, and denounces Stalin in 1966
 * Tensions needed to relax to avoid MAD
 * Pursuit of Communism channeled through economic and social means
 * Dwight Eisenhower ends the Korean war in 1953
 * Vietnam wins the war against the French in 1954

NATO Pact - 1949
At the height of the Berlin Blockade, war between the two world superpowers seemed a large possibility. The West answered the blockade with the creation of NATO or the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation; a treaty comprising of twelve founding nations:
 * Belgium
 * Canada
 * Denmark
 * France
 * Iceland
 * Italy
 * Luxembourg
 * Netherlands
 * Norway
 * Portugal
 * The United Kingdom


 * The United States of America

Warsaw Pact - 1955
COMECON was created prior to the establishment of the Warsaw Pact, which was militarily focused however COMECON was mainly economically focused. The Warsaw Pact was created a week after NATO asa direct response to NATO, and was used to quelled uprisings in satellite states. The pact consisted of:
 * USSR
 * Albania
 * Poland
 * Romania
 * Hungary
 * East Germany
 * Czechoslovakia
 * Bulgaria