Cold War Dbq

The Cold War was a “hybrid” war between the United States and the Soviet Union that started right after the end of World War II in 1947 (Two Super…). Both countries had strong political tensions toward each other. During the Cold War, although the two countries did not battle each other militarily, as a result of all the escalating tensions, the threat of an outright war made all parties nervous. The two countries, along with each other’s allies, differed in their opinions on postwar arrangements, with the Soviets backing out of their promise in the Yalta agreement, they were more interested in the spread of communism in the post WWII era. (Appleby) There are many ways to compare and contrast the foreign policy decisions made by the Soviet Union and the United States. There were fundamental differences in their political

The Soviets wanted to force the expansion of communism onto the worn-torn countries of Europe, while the U.S. wanted the war ravaged countries to develop capitalist and democratic societies, in which citizens choose to elect who is in government. The two countries could not see fit to cooperate on the future plans of much of Europe’s ruined countries destroyed by the war’s relentless bombings. The term “iron curtain”, which was coined by Winston Churchill in a speech made in Missouri in 1947, was a symbolic explanation for the Soviets cutting off Eastern Europe from the West (Churchill Delivers…). This aggressive move by the Soviets led to the U.S. developing a policy of containment. The policy of containment was made to stop the further expansion of communism by the Soviets in Eastern Europe. This later was made official by the signing of the Truman Doctrine by the president of the U.S on March 1947 (Two Super…). The Truman Doctrine helped Greece and Turkey militarily and economically in order to suppress Soviet threats