... of which were entrenched into their political ideologies. The US championed the need for free trade, liberal capitalism and liberal democratic political systems, especially in western and eastern European countries. They had the so-called "open door policy". They also saw Soviet Communism as a threat to the destabilised world as it had a historical policy of expansionism. The Communist Regime in Russia under the strong hand of Stalin saw American policy after the war as a threat to Russian national security. American policy had a long history of being anti-communism. Russia believed that the US wanted to encircle their country with capitalism thus weakening the Russian Communist state. A multitude of decisions, events and attitudes led to the cold war; there is not an exact starting point or one particular cause. There are three major theories on the origins of the Cold War; each presents a different view on ...

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