American Decades
The Cold War: Prelude in Wartime
The Origins of the Cold War.
The United States and Great Britain accepted the Soviet Union as an ally during World War II out of necessity. Prime Minister Winston Churchill said that the German threat was such that if "Hitler had invaded hell, I would have made a pact with the devil," and many Allied leaders characterized the Soviets in demonic terms. The roots of such attitudes were decades deep. From the moment the Bolsheviks took power in Russia in 1917, they were at odds with the Western powers. First, the Russians signed a separate peace treaty with the Germans in World War I, enabling Kaiser Wilhelm II to transfer troops to the western front, thereby increasing pressure on the Allies. The Bolsheviks expropriated many Western properties without compensating their owners, and then the new Russian leaders began to stir up revolutionary activity against Western governments. Britain, France, and the United States found the new...
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1940's Government and Politics
- Overview
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Topics in the News
- America at War: Background to Involvement
- America at War: from Humiliation to Hegemony in the Pacific
- America at War: The Campaigns in North Africa and Italy
- America at War: The Final Push in Europe
- America at War: The War Ends in the Pacific
- America at War: The War at Home
- America at War: The Internment of Japanese Americans
- America's Response to the Holocaust
- Civil Rights
- The Cold War: Prelude in Wartime
- The Cold War: Postwar Tensions
- The Development of the Affluent Society
- National Politics: Democratic Primaries and Convention 1940
- National Politics: Republican Primaries and Convention 1940
- National Politics: Election 1940
- National Politics: Election 1942
- National Politics: Democratic Primaries and Convention 1944
- National Politics: Republican Primaries and Convention 1944
- National Politics: Election 1944
- National Politics: Election 1946
- National Politics: Democratic Primaries and Convention 1948
- National Politics: Republican Primaries and Convention 1948
- National Politics: Election 1948
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Headline Makers
- Bunche, Ralph 1904-1971
- Dewey, Thomas E. 1902-1971
- Eisenhower, Dwight D. 1890-1969
- Forrestal, James V. 1892-1949
- Hobby, Oveta Culp 1905-
- Marshall, George C. 1880-1959
- Patton, George S. 1885-1945
- Perkins, Frances 1882-1965
- Rankin, Jeannette 1880-1973
- Roosevelt, Franklin D. 1882-1945
- Truman, Harry S 1884-1972
- Wallace, Henry A. 1888-1965
- People in the News
- Deaths
- Publications
- Important Events in Government and Politics, 1940–1949
