Joseph Stalin Cold War Essay

The revelation of the US’ development in making nuclear weapons under the Manhattan Project at the Potsdam Conference began the strain between the US and USSR. Joseph Stalin’s persistence for his country to compete with the US to be the number one economic, political, and military superpower marked the beginnings of the Cold War, an ideological war between the USSR’s assertion of communism and the US’ defense of capitalism. Although the USSR and the US both increased the tension that led to the Cold War, the USSR was the major contributor of the mistrust between the US by occupying Eastern European countries, imposing the Berlin Blockade, and establishing the Soviet atomic bomb project. After their efforts in fighting in WWII, the USSR turned to their efforts into occupying Eastern European countries to gain more power for the USSR’s communist regime. By establishing communist governments in Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and Hungary, Stalin created an Iron Curtain that prohibited these countries to trade with western countries, making the USSR a major economic power. Stalin’s hostile actions eventually led to the creation of the Truman Doctrine in 1947 that immediately sent aid

The US responded with an airlift to send over food and supplies to starving West Berlin citizens, and with the help of the Allies, announced the new country of West Germany and its new currency, the Deutsche Mark, leaving the USSR to lift the blockade in 1949. Prior to the blockade, Stalin already rejected the US’ Marshall Plan offered to USSR and the Eastern European countries he occupied, causing further tension by refusing help. The USSR’s failure to assert themselves as a major political superpower would fail because of the US’ intervention in their