America’s leader during WWII Roosevelt, had genuinely trusted Stalin, his successor Truman, however, took an immediate dislike towards Stalin and communist Russia. America was hostile towards the Soviet Union for a number of reasons: the spread of communism was a threat to American business as communist countries would not buy many American goods and America was scared of another depression like that of the 1930s. Also Stalin was believed to be another dictator like Hitler, and the 1930s had shown that appeasement did not work. This distrust was the basis of America/USSR rivalry and lead to other differences and disagreements before the Cold War.
One of the main areas of disagreement between America (and her allies) and Russia were their political differences. America (and her allies) a democratic countries felt strongly about Capitalism and freedom; individual rights were protected and the government did not interfere with people’s lives. On the other hand, Russian laws restricted freedom; people could only vote for a communist party, the state was more important than individuals, so people’s lives were tightly controlled. The opposing political views meant that each was suspicious of the other. America feared Russian spread of communism throughout europe and the rest of the world. Russia believed capitalist countries wanted to undermine communism in the Russia. However, America and Russia were allies during the war against Hitler, so political differences alone do not account for the Cold War.
In 1945, just after World War II, the alliance between the United States, Britain and the USSR ended. At the end of World War II, at the Yalta Conference, Germany was divided into four occupied zones controlled by Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States. Berlin was also divided into four sections. Lack of a mutual agreement on German re-unification marked the start of the Cold War.
The Western Allies unified West Germany to form the German Federal Republic (GFR). The USSR reacted by placing a blockade on Berlin. All food and other necessities had to be airlifted to West Berlin until May 1949. The Russian zone became the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
The Allies were also angered that the free elections promised by Stalin at the Yalta Conference were not held and adopted a new foreign policy of containment to keep communism to the areas where it was already in affect. The Truman Doctrine of 1947 stated that America would help any non-communist country to resist communist pressure. The Marshall Plan involved sending large amounts of American money to help non-communist countries to recover from World War II.
As Russia drove back Hitler's troops at the end of the war it occupied as much territory as it could in Eastern Europe. The west were worried by what it saw as Russian aggression, and believed that Stalin was trying to spread communism throughout Europe. Although they had been allies in the fight against Hitler, the west were now increasingly suspicious of Russia, another aid in the beginning of the Cold War.
As a result of Truman’s distrust of Stalin he failed to tell him about the atomic bomb until just before its use on Japan, and refused to allow the Soviet Union to participate in the occupation of Japan. Stalin already believed that the west had delayed the invasion of Europe during the war so that Hitler’s armies would weaken the Soviet Union, and this merely increased his suspicion of the west, and his desire to gain control of Eastern Europe.
