1945
The wartime alliance between the USA and the USSR in 1945
The alliance between the USA and the USSR was purely strategic; the main objective was to defeat Germany.
The differences between the USA and the USSR started to re-emerge even before the end of the war.
Both countries were worried about the other nation’s aims and this worry led to an increase in fear and suspicion.
This would lead to the breakdown of the wartime alliance and eventually turned into outright hostility.
Fight against communism
The USA emerged more powerful from World War Two than the USSR.
It was concerned by the spread of in Eastern Europe and the Far East.
The USA believed that the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, wanted to convert the rest of the world to communism, and as they had fought to destroy the evils of in Germany, Italy and Japan, now it was prepared to fight the communist ideology of the USSR.
Buffer zone
Stalin’s fear of the USA led him to believe that the USSR needed a to protect the Soviet Union from attack by anti-communist countries.
The USSR had been invaded twice in the 20th century by Germany, and Stalin wanted to avoid this happening again.
He believed for security reasons he had to create a barrier against the West, a barrier made up of communist run countries in Eastern Europe.
The new president of the USA, Harry Truman, saw Soviet domination of Eastern Europe not as an act of defence on Stalin’s part, but as an act of aggression and he was worried that this meant communism would spread into Western Europe.
