The US and the USSR had become divided over the political future of Poland even before the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. Joseph Stalin, the leader of the USSR from 1929-1953 established a pro-communist government there, believing that the Soviet control of Poland was necessary for his countries protection. The struggle over the future of Eastern Europe was the first phase of the cold War.
In 1946 and 1947 the USSR helped bring communist governments to power in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Poland. In 1947 President Truman of America issued the Truman Doctrine which stated that the US had to help any nation that the US government considered to be threatened by Soviet communism. The goal of this policy was to stop the spread of communism around the world. After Germany's defeat in World War 2 it was divided into British, French, American, and Soviet zones. The city of Berlin belonged to the Soviets but the governments could not decide whether or not to be a communist or capitalist government. The US and Britain decided to unite their zones because they were afraid that the bad results from the war left Europe vulnerable to the soviets. The US designed programs to rebuild western European economies. This program was called the Marshall Plan which was named after the US secretary of state George C. Marshall.
France joined the British-American zone and this started to form the West German Republic. Stalin and his army heads opposed the establishment of a West German state because they feared that the Americans would take over that area. Therefore they attempted to cut off Berlin through a land blockade. After 11 months, the western powers broke the USSR blockade and sent supplies to West Berlin. Communists in Czechoslovakia caused a crisis that lead to forming a new communist dominated government. Because of this all the countries of Eastern Europe were under communist control. Eastern Europe, Canada, and the US made the North Atlantic Treaty because of the spread of communism and the Berlin blockade. This treaty was signed in 1949 and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established. West Germany was recognized as an independent nation in 1955 and was allowed to join NATO. In response to this, eastern European communist nations led by the USSR formed the Warsaw Pact.
The US President Ronald Reagan, saw the USSR as an evil empire and the soviets viewed him as a foe willing to risk nuclear war in the process. In the mid 1980s Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the USSR and he achieved agreements with the west. In 1987, Gorbachev and Reagan agreed to eliminate a whole class of their countries nuclear missiles. In 1989, communists began to fall in the countries of Eastern Europe and the wall that divided east and West Germany since 1961 was torn down. In 1991, the USSR was eliminated and Russia and other Soviet republics became independent states. The end of Soviet power and the USSR itself was the end of the Cold War period. The ideology that once started the Cold War was now over and the American's defeated communism with capitalism.
