Did the Cold War start because of Franklin Roosevelt's inability to act against Russian aggression? This essay has been written to support the claim that because of Roosevelt inadequate prevention of Russian aggression the Cold War started and the World came close to having a nuclear war. To support this claim I have written the following paragraphs, which are broken down into these three sections, They are the Yalta conference at Lavidia Palace, the creation of the "iron curtain" and finally the siege of Berlin.
The Cold War started at the Yalta conference, which was held at Lavidia Palace in the Russian city of Yalta. Here the "Big Three" powers, headed by Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Josef Stalin, discussed how World War II would end. The main purpose of Yalta was the reestablishment of the nations conquered and destroyed by Germany. They gave Poland back its independence and gave its own national election in order to create a new, independent government. Yugoslavia was given its own government as well, which consisted of mostly old members under a new system. In both cases, Nazi and Fascist leaders were specifically prohibited. Secondly, the Yalta Conference agreed to divide Germany into zones controlled by each of the three nations present. With the immense size of Stalin's army, Russia would take Berlin and control the eastern half of Germany upon its surrender. Lastly, Stalin agreed to "unquestionably" join the war against Japan in "two or three months after Germany has surrendered and the war in Europe is terminated." The treaty was signed on February 11th, 1945. The public harshly criticized Roosevelt in 1946 when the agreements at Yalta became public information. He was said to have given away Eastern Europe through blind trust in Stalin. Roosevelt defended himself by saying that he had done the best he could and had hoped that the issue would be handled further by the United Nations.
