During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union Fought Together As Allies Against

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During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union fought together as allies against the Axis powers. However, the relationship between the two nations was a tense one. Americans had long been wary of Soviet communism and concerned about Russian leader Joseph Stalin’s tyrannical, blood-thirsty rule of his own country. For their part, the Soviets resented the Americans’ decades-long refusal to treat the USSR as a legitimate part of the international community as well as their delayed entry into World War II, which resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of Russians. After the war ended, these grievances ripened into an overwhelming sense of mutual distrust and enmity. Postwar Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe fueled many Americans’ fears of a Russian plan to control the world. Meanwhile, the USSR came to resent what they perceived as American officials’ bellicose rhetoric, arms buildup and interventionist approach to international relations. In such a hostile atmosphere, no single party was entirely to blame for the Cold War; in fact, some historians believe it was inevitable.

In Germany, following the Yalta agreement, the Allies established four occupation zones - French, British, American, and Russian. They divided the capital, Berlin, located in the Soviet sector, into four parts. The Russians promised free access from the western zones to Berlin. The Allies then began to carry out a selective process of

de-nazification. Some former Nazis were sent to prison while thousands received the benefits of large-scale declarations of amnesty. Many ex-Nazis were employed by the scientific and intelligence services of the Allies.

After World War II, many of the living had reason to envy the dead. Fire bombs and nuclear weapons depopulated and spread radiation to parts of Japan. One-fourth of Germany's cities were in rubble as were much of Italy and central Europe. The war claimed 10 percent of Yugoslavia's population. In China, after 15 years of fighting, the survivors faced hunger, disease, civil war, and revolution. Twenty-five million people died in the Soviet Union, and the country lost one-third of its national wealth. Although casualty rates in Britain and France were lower than in World War I, both countries paid dearly in lives and in the ruin that took one-fourth of their national wealth.

Cold War is the conflict between the Communist nations led by the Soviet Union and the democratic nations led by the United States. It is fought by all means - propaganda, economic war, diplomatic haggling and occasional military clashes. It is fought in all places - in neutral states, in newly independent nations in Africa, Asia and even in outer space.

The historians have so far not reached any agreement on the time in which the Cold War began. It is, however, quite safe to say that since 1947 when President Truman of the United States declared an anti-communist policy, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union has begun.