Rivalry between the communists and capitalists started way back in 1917, at the time of Bolshevik revolution when Lenin established a communist government. Countries, which believed in capitalism, feared the expansion of the communism into the Eastern and later into the Western Europe, so they intervened in the Russian Civil War in 1918-1921, by giving arms and supplies to the armed groups who were trying to overthrow Lenin and his communist government. After Lenin’s death, Stalin became the new leader of the Soviet Union. He wanted to invade Poland, to create a buffer zone against the future invasions from the West. The alliance signed in 1939 by Stalin with Hitler, known as the Nazi-Soviet Pact was a mistake, because Britain, France and the USA disliked Stalin even more when he did that. The alliance between the Soviet Union and the Nazi Germany was broken, when Stalin was forced to ally with Britain and France by the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Stalin was convinced that Britain and France delayed opening the second front, until 1994, because they were waiting until the Soviet Union was seriously damaged and to reduced to poverty by Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, but on the other hand, Churchill believed that Soviet Red Army would never leave the countries that were liberated by the Soviet Union.
In 1945, when Germany was almost defeated, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met at Yalta to decide the future of Europe once the war was over. They agreed on key issues, because they were still afraid of Hitler, but they disagreed on some issues, because of the different interests. Stalin wanted Polish border with Germany more to the West than the Western allies and he also wanted Poland to have a communist government to assure protection for Soviet Union from Germany, but the Western allies did not want to agree on that, because they were afraid that this would mean for Poland to be controlled by the Soviet Union and for Polish citizens not to be allowed to vote. Stalin also disagreed on how much Germany was to pay for the reparations. He wanted a much higher figure than Churchill or Roosevelt. They agreed to postpone this issue until the next conference. The next conference took place at Potsdam. The leaders agreed on many issues about Europe’s future, but they disagreed over what to do about Germany. Stalin wanted massive compensation from Germany for the Soviet Union, because of the 20 million Russians that had lost their lives during the World War II, but Truman refused, because that would have totally crippled Germany’s economy. The leaders also disagreed about the free elections in Eastern Europe. Truman wanted free elections in all countries of Eastern Europe, but Stalin refused, because he believed that US shouldn’t have interfered as much as it has. Truman was becoming furious and started to use a more aggressive policy against the Soviet Union.
It is hard to say who was to blame for all this rivalry, because both countries made mistakes. The Soviet Union was cold and harsh and was accused of spreading the communism as far as possible. Free elections were also refused and communist governments in Eastern Europe were set up and controlled by the Soviet Union. The rivalry was also U.S. fault. The USA didn’t understand the suffering of the Soviet people during the World War II and the U.S. also failed to understand Stalin. He did not want to control more countries or expand communism. He just wanted to create a buffer zone in Eastern Europe against future invasion from the West. There wouldn’t have been as much rivalry between the USA and the Soviet Union, if the mutual trust between both wouldn’t be lacking and each side overreacted and made everything worse, by using aggressive actions, starting at the Potsdam Conference.
In 1947, Truman launched US policy of containment. US policy of containment was launched, because Truman believed that the Soviet Union was trying to spread the communism as far to the west as possible. In order to put more pressure on the Soviet Union and to stop further expansion of the communism, Truman was ready to use an atomic bomb. The rivalry between the USA and the Soviet Union increased, as well as did the US involvement in European affairs. Truman backed up the policy of containment with much more friendly, but more effective action, known as the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was introduced to stop the expansion of the communism without using the US army, to help war-torn countries recover economically and to make the US economy even stronger. The aid was offered to all war-torn European countries to help them recover their economy and in return, the countries would agree to buy US good and allow US companies to invest in their industries. Economies of the war-torn countries were recovered, communism was limited onto the Eastern Europe only and the countries that accepted the aid were placed under political and economical control of the USA. The Marshall Plan made the USA the leading superpower and it had defeated the Soviet Union without the war taking place.
