Why did the USA and USSR become rivals between 1949-1954

The first 200 words of this essay...

Why did the USA and the USSR become rivals between 1954-1949?

After the Second World War there was a lot of tension between the USA and USSR. This was because during the earlier part of the war they had been fighting against each other and it was only when Germany invaded the USSR, and broke the Nazi-Soviet pact, that Stalin joined the Allies. This caused a lot of mistrust because it made the allies realise there was no loyalty from Stalin to them. He only joined the allies because he had no choice and had to fight alongside them in order to defeat the Nazi enemy, which caused a lot of mistrust between the soviets and the allies (most of all the USA) and increased the tension.

The USA and the USSR were the two major superpowers and were constantly in competition with each other. When the USA tested their new weapon, the atomic bomb, Truman was keen to boast to Stalin about this new military achievement at the Potsdam conference in July and August 1945. Truman told Stalin this because he wanted to show Stalin that he had the upper hand. He wanted to show