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Submitted by lovedsisxp on December 17, 2005
Category: History Other
Words: 2540 | Pages: 11
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After the end of World War II, the United States and USSR were the only two remaining powers in the world. Europe, which was now in shambles, was left with a power vacuum, from which both the U.S. and the USSR would vie for control. At the world’s end, although the friendly wartime alliance between the U.S. and USSR turned inimical, both countries were not looking for another war. The United States, although not as damaged as other countries, saw the destruction of fighting two major world wars within the same generation. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, having experienced both World Wars, and the Russian Revolution – all of which thoroughly devastated their borders, land and people, wanted to protect and secure their boundaries first and foremost. Thus, because Stalin saw a safe buffer for his own boundaries within Eastern Europe, he tried to secure his own presence in those countries with methods the United States sometimes found alarming. The U.S. not realizing the extent to which Stalin worried about his borders and his homeland security being exploited once again, regarded Stalin’s actions as aggressive (i.e. Soviet occupation in Poland), and bolstered attacks, asserting on the USSR’s behalf, their bent on world domination. The United States misconstrued Soviet intentions and assigned ‘world domination’ as Stalin’s main goal. With such a seemingly aggressive Soviet threat at hand, the U.S. utilized documents and speeches like Kennan’s Long Telegram, Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech and the Truman doctrine to acknowledge the maturing Soviet menace. These three documents and declarations deepened the stratification of the already tenuous Soviet and U.S relationship and unwittingly expedited and worsened Cold War tensions. The Soviets would then respond to the United States via pronouncements and reactions (i.e. the Cominform as a rebuttal to the Marshall Plan) as an escalating tit-for-tat would lead the U.S. and the USSR towards more enmity. Therefore,...
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