The Rise in Tension Between the United States and the USSR
After WWII
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Once the war had cleared up and all of the deaths tolled, the United States and Britain made it out lucky. For the United States, only about 450,000 people were killed (including civilian and combat) and for Britain, only 418,000 people also including civilians and combat deaths. As for the USSR, that was a different story. It is estimated that over 24,000,000 people (civilian and combat) were killed throughout the war.
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Splitting up Germany |
When all of the countries had gotten their men back home and started the long clean up process, the task of splitting Germany to prevent yet another war still needed to be done. In the end, Germany was split into 2 sections: East and West Germany. America and the USSR got claim of East Germany and Britain and France of West Germany. They were all split into four sections for everyone to share more equal. Berlin, which was deep in the territories of the USSR side of Germany, was split among the four countries in a similar fashion.
Even thought it sounds like a simple and easy solution, the dividing of Germany made for many new problems. The USSR was still tense over getting close to no credit for the end of WWII but were now forced to share a boarder with the United States and their allies. Being polar opposites, the USSR and America did not like the arrangement as time went on which eventually lead to, you guessed it, the Cold War. |
Stalin vs. Truman |
Stalin, a communistic dictator, essentially took over the USSR in 1924 and decided to make the USSR a super power again as well as compete with democracy and capitalism around the world. After WWII, he created his own secret police to get rid of any political enemies that might challenge his rein. He put out many propaganda posters that made him look like a father figure to the USSR.
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President Harry Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, had to make many hard decisions in the war near the end including the dropping of the atomic bomb. There are some people that say he only dropped the second atomic bomb because he was afraid that if the USSR would go to war with Japan, they would get the credit for ending the war. For that, Truman took most of the blame for the death of thousands of Japanese citizens but he was afraid if the USSR invaded Japan, they would spread communism further.
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