Question by Dallas: How & why did the soviet union and the united states turn from war time allies to cold war enemies?
How & why did the soviet union and the united states turn from war time allies to cold war enemies? I basically have a good knowledge, but i am still am a little unclear. i also need 5 primary sources to present in class, 3 of them text and 2 of them illustrations. Thanks.
Answers and Views:
Answer by MrV
The Cold War began as World War II was ending, 1945. American leaders saw the power and ambitions of the Soviet Union as a threat to our national security. The Cold War was a war of words and ideologies rather than a shooting war, although at times the Cold War turned “hot” as in Korea and Vietnam. Basically, the Cold War was a rivalry between the United States as leader of the western democracies, and the Soviet Union and the nations that were controlled by the communists.
The site below will have links to primary sources. Use the table of contents to find the primary links you want.
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What do you think?
SSF Tofudebeast says
The cold war practically started before WW2. When Russia went communist, a lot of communist rhetoric was generated talking about starting revolution in other capitalist countries. This was seen as threatening to the US.
The US and USSR were allies out of convenience, since they both had the desire to stop Hitler. After Hitler went down, there wasn't much need to keep the alliance going. In fact the US rushed the atomic bombs to Hiroshima and Nagasaki as they wanted to dissuade the USSR from invading Japan, as they were mobilizing troops in that direction after the major fighting ended in Europe. From there, the USSR refused to relinquish control of the Eastern European countries it gained from the falling Nazis, and it reached a real head in the showdown over Berlin which led to the Berlin airlift.
Jen says
What the first poster said but i'll add that although they were allies during the second world war, the russians were seen more as a necessary evil rather than allies. We needed the Russians to help defeat Germany but they were never truly liked by any of the allies.