The Cold War
With the question of whether the Cold War was a product of misconception and misunderstanding between the United States and other Western Powers is opinion to different interpretations and views in my opinion. However even though there was a series of misunderstandings between the United States and other Western Powers and the Soviet Union before and after the Second World War I tend to disagree with this interpretation of the Cold War for a number of reasons including the huge ideological divide between the Western Powers and the USSR. Also Stalins failure to make good on his promises for democracy in the Eastern European nations in the aftermath of WWII made it unacceptable for the Western Powers to regard him as an ally. In addition last but not least at the end of World War II the build up to the Cold War had been brewing for 25 years and this was due to the agreement and conclusions of the Versailles Peace Conference and before that the Bolshevik Revolution against the Romenovs in Russia which is a reason I mainly believe a combination of these two were responsible for a large part the Cold War.
Lets look first at the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, which overthrew the Provisional Government in 1917, which was put into place after Czar Nicholas II of the Romenovs abdicated his claim to the throne. However after the Bolsheviks came to power under Vladimir Lenin, With World War I raging Russia negotiated a peace with the Central Powers and left withdrew its forces from the Eastern front and allowed the Germans to move forces from the Eastern Front to face the main Allied Powers (Which Russia was formally a part of) on the Western Front. The Allied powers, which had a lot to lose by the Russian withdrawal from the war, staged an armed intervention against the newly founded Communist Government, which was also fighting a civil against the Whites (czarist and anti-Bolshevik Russians). The one of the main aims of this intervention was to topple the communist Bolshevik government and get Russia back in the war on the side of the Allies in order to reopen the Eastern Front against the Central Powers. The Allied powers failed to topple the Russian Government and thus failed to open Eastern Front once more. However The Allies emerged victorious from WWI due to American armed intervention on the Western Front. After the war and the failed Siberian intervention in Russia the victorious some of the Allied nations especially the United States failed to establish relations with Moscow, Especially with very strong anti-Communist and in general anti-leftist sentiment widespread through out the West especially the United States which did not establish relations with the USSR until 1931.
After World War I came the Versailles Peace Treaty in Which the Allied Powers would shape the Post World War I world and would also partake in the spoils of victory. The USSR, which was still in the middle of the civil War between the Bolsheviks and the Whites, was represented and present at the conference but did not have much say in the various discussions and agreements that would shake and rock the world geopolitically for decades to come. However it wasnt the Soviet Union that was feeling the expense of defeat but the Germans who were blamed for igniting the war and the damage it caused. The victorious Allies due to this blame slapped demands of financial reparations that the Germans were to pay in addition limits on German military and political ventures were placed. 20 years later these demands and limits placed on an already weakened post war Germany would come back to hunt them with the rise of the Third Reich under the leadership of Adolf Hitler and the subsequent armed aggression against the various nations of Europe. Germany and its allies (the Axis) were defeated, Germany which was occupied by the US, Great Britain, France, and USSR (which was also a victim of the Third Reichs aggression). With Germany occupied by these powers, The Western Allies took the Western area of Germany and the Soviets took responsibility for the Eastern section, With Berlin being a sort of international zone divided among the occupying powers. Also the USSR took control of most of Eastern Europe and the nations the Germans has conquered and occupied. The allies accepted this as long as Stalin supported free elections and gave the people of these nations their self-determination. Stalin agreed to this however he did not make good on his promise.
Combined with all the factors above mainly the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917 which caused strong tensions between Russias new Communist Government and the West. Added with the Versailles Peace Treaty which indirectly led to the Cold War through putting too much pressure on Germany through financial demands for reparation for WWI damages combined with sanctions on Germanys military and political entities on an already political and economically severely weakened Germany which eventually gave rise to the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler who was a staunch anti-Communist who sought lebensraum (living space) in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Then when Hitler broke the Rippentrop-Molotov Pact (German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact) and attacked the Soviet Union and this action brought the USSR into the Allied fold. Then after Germany and the other Axis powers where defeated and the Allied Powers got wind of Stalins intentions and his dishonoring of various postwar agreements. All of this was brought about when the track of this course of history was laid by a combination of the Bolshevik Revolution and indirectly by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles directed at Germany.
This is something I wrote for my International Relations class, In which I argue that the Bolshevik Revolution and the Treaty of Versailles were responsible in many areas for the Cold War.