Who Started the Cold War?

How you answer "Who started the Cold War?” depends on how you define the Cold War. Some scholars view it as a struggle between two powerful countries for world dominance. Another view holds that U.S. leaders perceived the Soviet Union as a threat to the security of the United States and reacted defensively. A mirror image holds that Soviet leaders perceived the United States as a threat to their country’s security. Other scholars argue that the Cold War was not a confrontation at all but rather a period when two powerful countries developed national security states for their own domestic reasons and justified this development by pointing to an alleged threat from the other superpower. This webinar will explore several Cold War perspectives so that you and your students can answer its simple sounding but complexly layered question for yourselves