Really – who?

Anti-Communism as a New Pseudo Religion

Winston Churchill was a staunch anti-communist. Nevertheless, to survive the World War IIhe was even willing to enter into an alliance with the communist regime of Stalin in the Soviet state. The war was entering its final phase, and Churchill was ready to divide up the world…

At the same time, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin did no hide the fact that the USSR bore the greatest burden of the war on their shoulders(the ratio of Nazi soldiers and weapons on the Russian front to all the other fronts was 4 to 1). Stalin believed that as the country-victor in World War II, the Soviet Union has a preferential right to protect its borders, receive reparations and so on.

What was the most unpleasant for Churchill was that such point of view was shared by the citizens of the Western world. Even Stalin’s territorial claims after the end of the World War II (quite reasonable) could not overshadow the sympathy of the whole world towards Soviet soldiers.

Interestingly enough, these sympathies are preserved despite of all sorts of political upheavals among the brothers in arms: Americans, British, Canadians, Poles, French, and representatives of many other countries, who took part in real fights against fascism.

British Plans to Attack the USSR

Let’s go back to April of 1945. On the instructions of Winston Churchill the plan of operation “Unthinkable” was being prepared – an attack on the USSR. According to this plan already on July 1 1945, the troops of the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada were to attack the army of the USSR and quickly defeat it. It was planned to involve all of the forces and means in the attack, including rearranging several divisions of the Nazi prisoners, which were supposed to, instead of the trial and tribunal for war crimes, be included in full force to the existing allied forces.

It’s hard to say how the operation “Unthinkable” would have ended. Given the fact that the ratio of the Soviet forces and the forces of allies in Europe was at the time at 3 to 1, and the level of the Red Army according to the independent – German – sources was 3-5 times higher than the level of the allied forces, most likely the only possible result would be hoisting a Soviet flag not only over Berlin, but also over London.

However, British military did not have too many illusions: “… Russians proved to be imposing opponents in a war with the Germans.”

Winston Churchill during his speech in 1945 / Unknown author

Who Started the Cold War – Cold War Ideology

Churchill came to the conclusion that the “communist problem” could not be solved at once. In addition, the UK resources were exhausted by the war. So Churchill makes an attempt to get the support of the United States.

The United States, too, had strong anti-communist sentiments. Besides, a war on foreign territory with minimal involvement in land operations resulted in not very extensive losses by United States in the World War II. On the contrary, the World War II pulled the United States out of the prolonged crisis. USA were not the most active participant in the anti-Hitler coalition, but as the United Kingdom, they feared a growing influence of the Soviet Union in Europe and wanted instead to control the Old World themselves.

This all led to the Fulton speech by Winston Churchill in the United States. During the speech Churchill did not hold public office in the UK, which was very convenient. If the reaction to the speech was very strong, it could be simply positioned as apersonal opinion of the elderly retired politician.

However, the speech pleased many influential people of the Western world, who were associated with military supplies (in part – the owners of newspapers and television) – in the event of a new war they could make even more money.

It was Churchill’s Fulton speech which is considered to be the beginning of the Cold War.

Why the War with the Soviet Union Became Cold

Later it became clear that direct aggression against the Soviet Union would be a suicide of the Western world, because just a few years after Churchill’s speech the Soviet Union, too, developed nuclear weapons, and a response to the bombing (Western strategists coldly calculated that under one scenario, 40 million people in the Soviet Union will be instantly killed, and under another – 100 million; and even assigned a start date of the attack on the USSR) would be immediate.

In addition, the reduction of the military forces of the USSR convincingly demonstrated their peaceful intentions. Only after the establishment of NATO (its statute expressly states that the main purpose of the alliance is a fight against the Soviet Union), the Soviet Union was forced to start expanding its army to protect against new threats.

Only the facts can clearly show who actually started the Cold War.

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