ABSTRACT
Was the cold war inevitable? Was it given in the circumstances surrounding the end of the war? If not, which side was to blame? Which particular decisions determined the direction of events? Did the character of the leaders make any difference? Who, more specifically, was to blame for the divisions of Europe? Did the West give away Eastern Europe at Yalta? What precisely were the goals of the United States and the Soviet Union at the end of the war? Certain answers to these and related questions have been implied in the previous chapter, but it may be well to address them directly at this point in order to illustrate the range of issues involved.
