The ideological differences between the U.S.A and the U.S.S.R were hidden by a mutual interest in the destruction of Hitler and the Nazi party during the Second World War until 1945. Even during the alliance there was tension between the sides and they had disagreements at Yalta in February 1945. Roosevelt, the leader of U.S.A was opposed to the control of the Red Army (U.S.S.R) over Poland. The U.S.S.R, led by Stalin wanted to expand into Eastern Europe, something that the U.S.A objected to. However, they came to an arrangement whereby U.S.S.R could control Poland if they stayed out of affairs with Greece, where Britain was trying to prevent a communist takeover.
The two sides distanced greater from one another as WWII ended leaving no common ground between the sides. At Potsdam the U.S.A had a new president, Harry Truman, a man who was harsh in his anti-soviet attitude. The two countries disagreed over the treatment of Germany, which has been divided amongst U.S.S.R, U.S.A. France and Britain. The Soviet government wanted to strip Germany of everything to replace the money and lives lost during WWII, while U.S.A wanted to rebuild Germany to prevent a future war stemming from resentment. The U.S.A developed the atomic bomb, making U.S.S.R. feel threatened and uneasy until they too split the atom later on. This created a feeling of competition between the sides, increasing the deep hatred between the U.S.A and U.S.S.R.
The U.S.S.R.’s ambitions on Eastern Europe grew and the Red Army began expanding into Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania etc. This created an iron curtain separating Europe between areas of Soviet control and the west. The U.S.A was determined to prevent a communist dominance of the world and in 1947 the Truman Doctrine was developed. This was worked on the concept of containment, to stop the soviet government expanding further but not to push it back. This was shortly followed by Marshall Aid which, although blocked by congress at first, was started in 1947 following the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia. Marshall Aid gave money to the countries free from communism to make them strong enough to resist a Soviet takeover. This infuriated Stalin who saw it as an attempt to make U.S.A business dominate Europe. The U.S.S.R became even more determined to spread communism.
The split of Germany between Britain, France and U.S.A and the U.S.S.R did not run smoothly. Berlin the capital city was deep in the soviet sector but the allies thought in necessary for Berlin to be split also to keep control of the most important city. The U.S.A, France and Britain all combined their sectors so Berlin became split between the East, communism, and the West, capitalism. It soon became obvious that the capitalist sector was far more prosperous and people began to move from the East sector to the West. Stalin saw this as an embarrassment and knew that he had to do something to make communism seem like a better policy than capitalism. He decided to try to force the allied control from Berlin. In 1948 he blockaded the railways, roads and canals that linked West Germany to Berlin. This cut off 2 million West Berliners from Western help and supplies, Stalin was effectively trying to starve out the allied control. The U.S.A refused to accept this though and started airlifting in supplies. This lasted until 1949 when, despite shortages, it became obvious that Stalin’s plan was not working and he unblocked the vital western links. The whole event had made the allies very angry and distanced the two sides further as their hatred for one another grew. An air of competition between the success of communism or capitalism was created.
Later two distinct armed sides were formed and U.S.A and U.S.S.R were officially enemies. The U.S.A joined N.A.T.O, a western alliance and in 1955 the U.S.S.R made the Warsaw Pact, an eastern alliance. This created a huge rift; East against West and a cold war was well underway. Although the sides never were in direct conflict, the war was one of words and politics rather than actions.
The sides that were once united drifted apart after their common interest of defeating Hitler and the Nazi’s was achieved. The reason for this distance between the sides can always be put down to their ideological differences as they never wanted the same things and were bound to come into conflict. A series of triggers happened after the end of WWII to further distance the underlying rift of the two sides’ different ideals. U.S.A and U.S.S.R were official enemies by the 1950’s due to a mixture of long and short term triggers and causes.
