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Personally, I think that it was deterrence. The Soviets (not the Russians - there's a difference, folks) were widely considered by most of the commanders in Europe to be capable of launching another westward push. And let's be honest, the Soviets won the war against Hitler, not the Americans and Europeans. At the time, Soviet Communism was understood as a constant evolving revolution boiling over from inside Soviet borders and spilling over into other countries (see: Spain, China). Actual Soviet foreign policy was, in retrospect, very different than what Americans understood it to be, but most Americans understood Communism to be a direct threat against their government and actively feared it. American military personnel sat in victory dinners with their Soviet counterparts and expected war to break out at any minute - these were not allies that trusted one another.
I don't disagree that there wasn't a revenge factor (which would be coupled, of course, with racism) or the "saving American lives" argument. But I see it as a very vivid demonstration to what was widely perceived as "the next enemy".
That said, I don't think that it's at all possible to point to any one single factor for such a decision. It's like saying that the American Civil War was just about slavery or that the Crusades were about religion.
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo
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