Sem2.HW1

"Could the US and the USSR have avoided the Cold War?"

The Cold War could have been avoided if the Truman administration didn't purposefully establish the USSR as an immediate threat, as evident in the 'Long Telegram', which states "there can be no ... peaceful coexistence [between the US and USSR]." The tension between the two nations could have been resolved.

(from the Cold War Files, George Kennan's Long Telegram)

The Cold War could have been avoided if the US gave up its nuclear weapons, instead of keeping them. According to Soviet delegate Andrei Gromyko, the USSR was willing to negotiate about arms control if the US's atomic weapons were destroyed. The arms race could have been avoided.

If the USSR kept its 1942 agreement to withdraw from Iran in the first place without US's pressure, the Cold War could have been avoided. The US's fear that the USSR was trying to expand its control beyond Eastern Europe would have lessened and the tension resolved.

The Cold War could have been avoided if the US and Britain didn't merge their occupation zones in Germany. This led to the Berlin Blockade in 1948, a high point in the Cold War. If the occupation zones remained separate, the tension between the US and USSR would have lessened.