It is way too simplistic to chalk up the Cold War to cynical actions of the US and USSR security establishments. The Cold War started amongst unprecedented changes in world history that made it an extremely difficult relationship to manage.

The most obvious factor is nuclear weapons and ICBM's. This is the first time in history that two global superpowers squared off, each having the ability to literally wipe the other off the face of the earth in the matter of a few hours. That will tend to breed lots of paranoia.

Although the Soviets of the 70's-90's may have wanted to be left alone (and that is not a certainty), Stalin's USSR was expansionist and bent on getting value for its sacrifices during WWII. Europe and Asia were largely up for grabs. The USSR would have expanded as far as we allowed it.

Or at least expanded its ideology. Remember that a core tenant of Communist ideology in the USSR was to spread the worker's revolution to other countries around the world. The US ideology was to oppose it because such ideology meant the end of free markets and democratic government. This was a fundamental difference in ideology that was not simply cooked up by security types. It was a real ideological divide.

In many respects it is surprising how many things went right when you consider how long the Cold War lasted, and how relatively bloodless it was.