The Cold War was the culmination of a series of events that stemmed from the Second World War and held the world in a perpetual state of heightened tension, from its inception in 1945 til its final days in 1991. The Cold War was fought indirectly between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, as both nations threatened one another with the prospect of nuclear destruction. The United States and the Soviet Union were the two leading powers of the world when the Second World War concluded. The Soviet Union had established itself as the second most powerful operating economy after the United States. In the wake of the Soviet Union’s economic crisis in the 1920s, Joseph Stalin propelled the economy into a speedy industrialisation which …show more content…
congress and policy makers decided to broaden and strengthen their security measures on account of fears of a forthcoming Communist expansion. U.S. leaders believed they were under moral obligation to involve themselves in all foreign affairs, as they regarded their democratic system to be the most superior and equitable. It was a lot more difficult for the Soviets to uphold the security of their land due to its expanse, and an unassailable Eastern Europe was regarded as integral to avoid another German war. It is unknown how precisely Stalin planned to go about obtaining security; however he certainly did not desire an instantaneous, all out war as the USSR had already suffered a huge death toll and it was assumed that consistent relief and support from their Western allies would assist in its restoration. Stalin ultimately desired Communist expansion, as the Soviet regime invariably wanted, in Poland, Finland, and the Baltic states. Towards the end of the Second World War, Stalin had been optimistic that his ambitions regarding Soviet expansion in specific countries would be realised if the USSR maintained its alliance with the United States and Britain. At the Yalta Conference in 1945, where Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill proposed to Stalin that Russia implement some degree of Democracy and civil liberties in Eastern Europe, Stalin misunderstood