There are tow parts to the cause of the Cold war, partly this is down to the actions of the USSR. The steady set up of communist regimes in Eastern Europe may have been nothing more that an attempt by the USSR to built up a line of security via controlled satalites but it also began to worry the Americans. On top of that the Societ attitued towards the Post war order left the Americans more uneasy. The USSR refused to join the IMF on the grounds that Soviet Gold and currency reserves on where a state secret. This failed to engender trust on the part of the USA. I could go about other
On the American side there was two things pushing them towards conflict with the USSR first there was an influence group of people in the State Department who believed that the USSR was a danger to the West and had to be stopped. these people had been sent to Riga during the Russian Civil war and were heavily influenced by White Russian exils there opinions towards the Soviet Union where heavily baised beacuase of this. Two ofthe key men where Joseph Grew (under secatary of State in 1945) the other, more impartant, man was Geroge F. Kennan who in 1946 while in the US embassey in Moscow wrote the so called Long telgram which was a long attack on Soviet forgine policy (it basically gave the Soviet leadership far more power than it had) this backed up with Soviet actions moved the Americans on a course of containment, which of course began to concern the Soviets and left them worried about the Americans.
Basically both sides walked into this conflict on the back of misunderstanding the other vision for thw world. American believed that WWII was caused primarly by the great depression which allowed men like to Hitler to rise to power and if a new liberial economic order could be created war would be averted. The USSR believed that war was cuased by a lack of balance of power and if the USSR and the USA would only carve up the world between them then everyone would be happy and peace would be secured. The two stances were of course impossible to bridge and two visions left the USA and USSR spiraling into conflict.
On the American side there was two things pushing them towards conflict with the USSR first there was an influence group of people in the State Department who believed that the USSR was a danger to the West and had to be stopped. these people had been sent to Riga during the Russian Civil war and were heavily influenced by White Russian exils there opinions towards the Soviet Union where heavily baised beacuase of this. Two ofthe key men where Joseph Grew (under secatary of State in 1945) the other, more impartant, man was Geroge F. Kennan who in 1946 while in the US embassey in Moscow wrote the so called Long telgram which was a long attack on Soviet forgine policy (it basically gave the Soviet leadership far more power than it had) this backed up with Soviet actions moved the Americans on a course of containment, which of course began to concern the Soviets and left them worried about the Americans.
Basically both sides walked into this conflict on the back of misunderstanding the other vision for thw world. American believed that WWII was caused primarly by the great depression which allowed men like to Hitler to rise to power and if a new liberial economic order could be created war would be averted. The USSR believed that war was cuased by a lack of balance of power and if the USSR and the USA would only carve up the world between them then everyone would be happy and peace would be secured. The two stances were of course impossible to bridge and two visions left the USA and USSR spiraling into conflict.