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The Soviet Union and the United States formed an unlikely alliance during World War II after Adolf Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. After Hitler's occupation the Soviet Union put aside their differences and formed an aliiance to attend to the urgent business of defeating Hitler.
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Bristish prime minister Winston Churchill, U.S. president Frankilin D. Roosevelt, and Soveit premier Josef Stalin agreed on a military plan to end the war and a subsequent joint occupation of Germany. Stalin promised to allow free elections in Poland, in accordance with Roosevlets desire for an independent and democratic Eastern Europe
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At the end of World War 2, Germany was placed under military rule and divided into zones broadly reflecting the positions of the occupying armies. The Soviets were stationed in the east, the Americans took the south, and the British controlled the northwest. Also divided Berlin into four seperate sectors and establsihed the Allied Control Council to rule Germany.
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Stalin established Soviet-controlled governemnts in Eastern European countries occupied by the Red Army, including Poland.The United Statesobjected to tthese totalitarian, communist regimes, but it could do little to prevent them from arising. Postwar would be divided into East and West
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The United States successfully tested the world's first atomic bomb, or A-bomb, in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
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The Soviet and the United States agreed to recongnize each others' influence over regionsn where their respective troops remained at the end of the war.
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The United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing thousands of people and ending the war with Japan. The use of atomic bombs dramatically increased the consequences of armed conflict between the Soviet Unioon and the U.S.
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Winston Churchill visited the U.S. and stated,' From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the European continent." This iron curtain of Soviet controlled countries in Eastern Europe ran along the western border of East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Albania and along the southern borders of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.
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Great Britain had been supporting the Greek goernment in its fight against the communists. But, British funding soon rand dry and Britain appea;ed to the U.S. for help.
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As a result of Greece and Turkey fighting off communist rebellions, President Truman made a speech on national television stating that it was the obligation of the United States to "support free peoples who are resisting attempted enslavement by communists or by outside pressures." It also was the Cold War policy of containment so the U.S. tried containing the spread of Soviet communism. And the U.S. congress gave 400 million dollars to provide assistance to Greece and Turkey.
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Truman's National Security Council drafted NSC 68, a secret document that whould be, " a blueprint for American policy in the Cold War." They warned that Soviet military capability was no improving quickly. The council recommended that Truman increase U.S. military spending to $50 billion a year, which he did within two years.
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Provided $17 billion in aid for the economic recovery of Europe. It was an effort by the U.S. to promote world peace and stability. The Soviets, perceieved it as a cunning attempt to support American capitalism by economically enslaving Europe. When accepting American loans, European countries agreed to buy American products, thus strengthening the U.S. economy.
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France, Great Britain and the United States announced the plans to introduce a new form of currency in Germany.In relation for not having been directly consulted, the Soviets formally withdrew from the Allied Control Council.
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When the Allies introduced the new currency in West Berlin, the Soviets protested by instituting a formal blockade of Berlin. Closing all road, rail and water routes to and from the city. Stalin cut off the inabitants of West Berlin from all supplies of fuel, power and food.
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The United States began airlifting supplies to Berlin in an attempt to aid West Berlin without starting an armed conflict with the Soviet Union.
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Canada, France, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands and United States formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO's member nations formed a military alliance to protect each other from Soviet aggression.
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Mao Zedong led the Communist Revolution in China, the government quickly allied itself with the Soviet Union, and both countries signed a mutual defense and economic aid agreement. United States looked upon China's alliance with the Soviet UNion with alarm and hostlity
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The American monopoly on nuclear weapons ended in 1949 when the Soviets perfected their nuclear technology and developed a nuclear weapin of thier own.
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After almost a year, Stalin reopened all routes into Berlin on May 12, 1949
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It increased American alarm over the spread of communsm in Asia. After World War 2, the northeast Asia country of Korea was divided at the 38th parallel into two countries: North Korea, supported by the Soviet Union, and South Korea, supported by the United States and the United Nations.
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With arms provided by the Soviet Union, Communist North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations quickly condemned the invasion and authorized sending troops to the region under the leadership of U.S. general Douglas MacArthur. North Koreans northward almost to the Chinese border and made plans for a Christmas celebration.
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The United States successfully tested an even more powerful nuclear device, the hydrogen bomb. Result of the Soviet making a nuclear weapon of their own.
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Truman feared that the Soviets migth be drawn into the fightng and the oneset of a third world war. MacArthur was fired for taking his stand public.
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After U.S. tested hydrogen bomb, Soviets followed by creating more nuclear devices.
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In responce to the U.S. NATO, the Soviets formed a similiar military alliance with Eastern European nations such as Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
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Hungarian citizens began rioting and demanded more freedom from their Communist government. They threatened to return to a parliamentary democracy if their demands were not met. The new Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushev quickly dispatched the Soviet Red Army with tanks to the HUngarian capital of Budapest.
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However, Berlin remained a divided city and in 1961 the Soviet Union built a wall, called the Berlin Wall, between East and West
Berlin to prevent people from escaping to the west. Many people wanted to escape to the west to get away from these disadvantages. -
In 1968 the Soviet Union stopped an uprising in Czechoslovakia. Most of Eastern Europe stayed firmly under Soviet control until the late 1980s.
