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.