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The Soveit Union and the United formed an unlikely alliance during World war II after Adolf Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. They combined forces in order to take Germany down as that was their main priority at that time. They were preiviously enemies due to their different ideologies.
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After the Allies defeated Germany, Stalin established Soviet-controlled governments in eastern European countres occupied by his Red Army. The US was against this type of totalitarian, communist rule but couldn't do much to prevent it.
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After World War II, Germany was placed under military rule and divided into zones broadly relfecting the positions of the occupying armies. The Soviets were stationed in the east, the Americans took the south, and the British controlled the northwest. France also controlled parts of the American and British zones. The Allies also divided Berlin, the capital of Germany, into four sectors in order to create the Allied Control Council to rule Germany.
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The United States successfully tested the world's first atomic bomb, or A-bomb, in New Mexico. In August, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cites of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and they killed thousands of people and ended the war with Japan. The consequences of armed conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States was greatly increased.
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The Yalta Conference that took place in Soviet Union was a meeting between British prime minister Winston Churchill, US president FDR, and Soviet premier Stalin. There they agreed on a military plan to end the war and a joint occupation of Germany. They decided for free elections in poland and an independent/democratic Eastern Europe by the requets of the US.
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Germany, the Soviet Union, and the United Sates agreed to recognize each others' influence over regions where their respective troops remained at the end of the war.
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Winston Churchill visited the United States and delivered his Iron Curtain speech. This speech outlined the "iron curtain" of Soviet-controlled countries in Eastern Europe that 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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The governments of Greece and turkey were fighting off Communist rebellions. Great Britain had been supporting the greek governemtn in its fight against the Communists. British funding soon ran out and asked the United States for help.
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This was the speech by President Truman that outlined that Cold War policy of containment in which the United States committed itself to containing the spread of Soviet communism.$400 million was requested to Congress to provide assistance to greece and Turkey.They both successfully defeated communist takeovers.
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President Harry S. Truman's National Security Council drafted NSC 68, a secret document that would be used as the blueprint for American policy in the Cold War. The authors of this document warned that Soviety military was improving its capabiity at a very fast rate, therefore $50 billion was spent every year in order to build the U.S military.
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Afriad that European countries would be communist controlled, the United States provided $17 billion in aid for the economic recovert. It was an effort to promote world peace and stability. Part of the plan also included a promise for these European countries to agree to buy American products, thus growing the U.S. economy.
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France, Great Britain, and the United States announced plans to introduce a new form of currency in Germany. However the did not consult the Soviet Union, therefore the Soviets decided to formally withdraw 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. They closed all road, rail, and water routes to and from the city of Berlin. Stalin cut off the fuel, power, and food supply of the living people in Berlin.
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After Stalin cut off all supplies to the inhabitants of West Berlin, the United States began airlifting supplies to Berlin in an attempt to aid the people of West Berlin without starting an armed conflict with the Soviet Union.
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The United States joined western nations such as Canada, France, Great Britain, Italy, and the Netherlands to form the North atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The members of the nation formed a military alliance to rpotect each other from Soviety Aggression.
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After a year, Stalin finally decided to reopen the routes into Berlin. However, Berlin still remained a divided city.
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The American monopoly on nuclear weapons ends. America now has serious competition regarding nuclear weapons when the Soviets perfeced their nuclear technology and developed a nuclear weapon of their own.
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Mao Zedong successfully led the Communist Revolution in China. His Communist government allies itself with the Soviet Uion and they both sign a mutual defense and economic aid agreement. The United States was upset about this alliance as China was previously their allie.
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The Korean War increased American alarm over the spread of communism in Asia. After World War II, 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 send troops under the leadership of US general Douglas MacArthur to aid South Korea. South Korea pushed the North Koreans northward and almost to the Chinese border and were ready for victory.However, 1 million chinese men volunteered on the side of North Korea and pushed back South Korea including its capital, Seoul.
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The United States successfully tested an even more powerful nuclear device, the hydrogen bomb.
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The Soviet Union also make advances in their nuclear weapons and create bombs such as the hydrogen and atomic bomb that were used in the United States.
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The Korean War ended with the firing of MacArthur who too his stand publically. Everyone feared that the Soviets might be drawn into the fighting and the onset of a third World War.
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The Soviet Union formed a similar military alliance with Eastern European nations such as Czechosloavkia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, known as the Warsaw Pact or Warsaw Treaty Organization.
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Some eastern European countries in the Soviet bloc attempted to revel against the communismt government. Hungarian citizens began rioting and demanded more freedom from their Communist government. They threatened to return to a parliamentary government if their demands were not met. The Soviet Red Army was simply sent after them and were executed. They tried asking help from the US but the US refused in fear of World War III.
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The Soviet Union built a wall, called the Berlin Wall, between East and West Berlin to prevent people from escaping to the west.
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The Soviet Union stopped a similar uprising in Czechoslovakia. It was similar to the revolt by Hungarians, who wanted more freedom from the Communist government.
