Truman made some decisions that ultimately had a huge effect in the build up to the cold war. When plans were made for the division of power after WWII, Truman originally opposed America ganging up against Russia and said he would keep the agreements that were made with them. But Truman wanted to appear decisive and tough and he was not prepared to accept any deal if he could not get the majority of it his way. When Truman went to the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, he went there only to advance American Interest and he believed that the atomic bomb was the way to do this. Though this treat he was able to have his way at the Yalta conference.
However, you shouldn't make the assumption that devotion to ideology was all that was behind Cold War animosity; countries tend to be more complaint trading partners with countries that share their political systems and both Stalin and the Cold War Era presidents in the US knew this. The tension eventually built, but no one wanted to go to actual war again after the colossal massacre of WWII, hence the term Cold War. 2. Describe and explain the ideological differences between the United Stated and the Soviet Union. In 1917, Russia became a communist country with an agenda of converting the world to communism.
Much of the tension between the Soviet Union and the United States was linked to the end of World War II and the negotiations for settlement that followed. During the war, the Soviets believed that Britain and the United States had intentionally delayed a second front against Germany. They suspected that their so-called “allies” had decided to let the Soviets bear most of the burden of the war, but intervened towards the end to influence peace settlements. These misconceptions left feelings of tension and hostility between the two superpowers. Both the Soviet Union and the United States had very different ideas of how to establish postwar security.
Though the need to defeat the Germans had made USSR a partner in the Allied forces from 1941 onwards, Stalin had displayed the tendency that he wanted to dominate the world, and he used dictatorial powers and military powers towards people of his own country as well as others. Even during the Yalta Conference of 1945 towards the end of World War II, which suggested the high point of wartime unity and goodwill between the Allies and the Soviet Union, Stalin showed his determined to control the countries in Eastern Europe. Thus, under the outward display of unity some elements of distrust between USSR and other allied countries already existed. This disharmony between them came to surface when, after the war ended, Stalin of USSR refused to honor the Declaration on Liberated Europe, in which the Allies promised to hold democratic elections in the European countries liberated from war. After the war, USSR cut off almost all contacts between the West and the territories it controlled in Eastern Europe.
Because of allegations leading up to the 1960s, the ordinary western resident would most probably blame the USSR for the war’s happening (obviously the element on pride and patriotism are to be taken into account) but to the more historically taught persons, further elements can be taken into account. For example, the difference in ideologies or “clash,” the aims of the Soviet Union and the USA, former resentments and historic grudges and of course the events leading to the Cold War. “The clash of ideologies” is a term often used to describe the differences the two Governments shared. This phrase can refer to the governmental views on the ruling of a country; Americans hated the very prospect of Communism, as did the USSR hate Capitalism. Though a war over government preferences is arguably a farfetched reason to wage war, it was apparent that these ideologies had a huge influence on lifestyle.
In 1946, Winston Churchill drew an Iron Curtain in Europe, a metaphor for the ideological and political divide between the Soviet sphere of influence and Western Europe. In the same year, the USA ended its isolationist policy for a policy of containment. The containment policy was adopted by America to prevent the spread of communism beyond the Iron Curtain. In short, the policy was aimed to contain the expansionist tendencies of the Soviet Union. A focus of the American foreign policy during the Cold War, the containment policy was largely a success.
Stalin's foreign policies contributed an enormous amount to the tensions of the Cold War. His aim, to take advantage of the military situation in post-war Europe to strengthen Russian influence, was perceived to be a threat to the Americans. Stalin was highly effective in his goal to gain territory, with victories in Poland, Romania, and Finland. To the western world, this success looked as if it were the beginning of serious Russian aggressions. The western view of the time saw Stalin as doing one of two things: either continuing the expansionist policies of the tsars, or worse, spreading communism across the world now that his one-state notion had been fulfilled.
In the period directly following Soviet liberation of Nazi-held Eastern Europe, it became evident of the Russian desire to dominate that very region. The reasons for this are manifold, but one of the most significant reasons was a desire to ensure the USSR’s security. Russia had repeatedly been attacked through Eastern Europe (and most specifically Poland), from the time of Napoleon to Hitler not 4 years ago. With America and its allies building up force in Western Europe, Stalin was bound to be suspicious of the capitalist powers, even more so considering the increasing level of anti-communist demagoguery in America. Having a series of puppet states in Eastern Europe would give the metropole invaluable security, ensuring that the states which bordered it were friendly and would support it in a theoretical invasion.
This, however, was seen by the Soviet Union as a form of economic expansion through which the Americans were bringing Eastern European states into their own sphere of influence, and was a direct challenge to their authority. It is possible to argue that the Americans were indeed trying to help struggling states with their growth and that the aims were purely altruistic in nature. However, it must be noted that the Marshall Plan did have strings attached, forcing the countries that it provided aid for to open their markets for American goods and not advancing it to countries who did not do
I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way. I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly process.” The policy the President spoke of would later become known as the Truman Doctrine and would become a turning point in U.S. foreign strategy. The policy was in response to the “Communist guerrilla movement which had begun in Greece in 1946” as well as the “Soviet diplomatic pressures on Turkey.” Although the original intentions of the doctrine were simply to aid Greece and Turkey in their efforts to resist the threat of communism, the perhaps more important and long lasting effect was the implementation of a defined policy with an overarching theme of containment of Soviet Union and its Communist allies. Credit for the policy of containment against the Soviet spread of communism belongs in part to George