The Cold War occured due to a mixture of miscommunication and poor leadership. While I do not think that President Harry Truman was completely responsible for the start of the Cold War , I believe he played a major role. Truman started his term with excellent ratings and historians credit his administration with a variety of different accomplishments however, at the end of his term the ratings plummeted. Although people admired him at the beginning of his term, many people believe that he was a horrible leader. A great leader is willing to listen to opposing views and determine what is best for the rest of the group after listening. Truman’s inability to listen to listen to opposing views showed signs of weakness,”Truman parochial views also caused him to disregard contrary view, to engage in simplistic analogizing, and show little ability to comprehend the basis for other nations’ policies” (Offner, 291). Truman’s attitude towards foreign policy made the Soviet Union’s leadership more aggressive. …show more content…
Insecurities are inevitable and some are easy to look over but Truman’s however affected his performance while in office. Prior to becoming president, Truman served under President Franklin D. Roosevelt . After Roosevelt passed away Truman became president but he knew very little about Roosevelt’s agreements with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. Due to the face that his knew little to nothing about their agreements he did not have the knowledge to respond to the others in a way that would not make him seem weak to them. Truman tried to conceal his insecurities by attempting to appear overly confident but everyone saw through