The Cold War And The Soviet Union - 2320 Words

The Cold War was an era of ideological and economic struggle characterized by the threat of nuclear of war and regional wars between the two world superpowers, the USA and the USSR. This Cold era started in 1947 at the end of World War II until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It is commonly referenced as cold because it supposedly never heated up into an actual armed conflict despite some action in Korea, Afghanistan, and Vietnam. However, the ultimate and inevitable struggle occurred between the United States and other democracies of western Europe against the Soviet Union with their communist bloc countries due to the decreasing power of European nations, ideological differences, and the greed to become the world’s greatest†¦show more content†¦Each side believed that the alternate ideology was a threat to their own way of life and this mixture of ideological fear and aggression meant that in both America and Russia beliefs invaded and affected foreign policies. US could not tolerate the Communist ideology and Russia did not like US dominance upon European countries. Both leaders also sought to achieve their postwar security goals which were often conflicting and neither was willing to negotiate. For example, during the Yalta Conference in 1945, Roosevelt hoped that free elections would lead to democratic governments responsive to the local population. Although Stalin had initially agreed to Roosevelt’s request, it soon became clear that the Soviet Union interpreted the agreement differently and instead installed communist governments throughout Eastern Europe under the control of the Soviet Union. The USSR, who had already been invaded twice in the first half of the 20th century, wanted the creation of a â€Å"buffer† of states in Eastern Europe to protect the USSR from being invaded. In addition to enormous war reparations, Stalin wanted to dismantle German factories resulting in a weak and dependent Germany who would not be able to rise as a world power again. However, when Britain and America kept on delaying D-Day, Stalin was u neasy as he thought they were trying to obtain Germany for themselves. In order to protect democracy, America helped Germany recover which