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Why did U.S.-Soviet relations deteriorate after World War II?
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U.S.-Soviet relations deteriorated after World War II due to conflicting ideologies and broken agreements. The Soviet Union, under Stalin, ignored promises of democratic elections in Eastern Europe, imposing communist regimes instead. This was seen by the U.S. as an aggressive spread of communism, prompting a response through containment policies. The mutual distrust was exacerbated by each superpower's commitment to opposing worldviews, leading to tensions and proxy wars worldwide.
Relations after World War II between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorated into cold war because the two nations had radically different ideas of how the post-war world should be configured. For instance, while the USSR had agreed to allow democratic elections in the Eastern European countries it had liberated from Nazi rule, in reality, Stalin had no intention of allowing that to happen. From his point of view, which in fact was true, the Russians had carried the brunt of the death and pain in the European war while the US and Great Britain dragged their feet on invading Europe and drawing off German fire from the Soviets. Stalin was utterly determined to have a loyal set of buffer states (what we might call puppet states) between his country and Germany. For him, keeping Soviets safe from another attack from the west was of paramount importance.
However,...
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from the point of the view of the US, which was also not wrong, Stalin betrayed his agreement and committed a backstab by ramming communist governments down the throats of his satellites states. The US took this as an aggressive act meant to spread communism worldwide. In fact, this was true, as Stalin did want to spread communism as far he could, while the US wanted to spread democratic capitalism. This situation led to a volatile situation in many parts of the world, particularly in southeast Asia and Africa, where proxy wars were fought to block and/or advance communism.
Neither country communicated well with the other, but fundamentally, each superpower was committed to a worldview that was antagonistic to and distrustful of the other.
After World War II, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union began to deteriorate. There are reasons for this. Before the war ended, the United States had some agreements with the Soviet Union. One agreement was regarding the new Polish government after World War II ended. There was supposed to be free elections in Poland, and the new government was supposed to include members from the pre-war Polish government in it. When the new government was formed, it appeared free elections didn’t occur, and most members in the government were from the government established by the Soviet Union during World War II.
In Europe, as a result of the agreement known as the Declaration of a Liberated Europe, there were supposed to be elections to allow people to choose their own government after World War II. Yet the King of Romania indicated he was pressured to have a communist government after the war ended. This added to the growing distrust between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union wanted to spread communism. We were opposed to the spread of communism. With our policy of containment, we tried to keep Communism from spreading. We worked to prevent the spread of communism in Europe and in Asia. We helped Greece and Turkey fight the spread of communism, and we helped to keep South Korea free from communism. This brought us into conflict with the Soviet Union.
There are reasons why the United States and the Soviet Union had a deteriorating relationship after World War II ended.