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Truman And Stalin Relationship

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An event which resulted in the change of relations between the USSR and Western Allies between 1945 and 1949 was the bombing of the cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US, using the first ever atom bomb. The United States and the Soviets were considered to be the most prominent superpowers in the world as of the time; both were extremely wealthy, and most importantly, both had great military capacity and were in competition with each other to gain the upper hand in that field. So, inevitably, when President Truman of the US took the leader of Russia, Joseph Stalin, aside to inform him that they had gained nuclear capacity and that they were planning to utilise it against the Japanese just under two weeks before proceeding to do so on the 6th …show more content…

He also left a question of trust between the two currently allied forces; why did Truman entrust Stalin with the knowledge of their nuclear capacity so much later than he entrusted his other major wartime ally, Churchill? Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was informed of the successful development of the atomic bomb a day after the test was carried out on the 16th July, whereas Truman did not inform Stalin until many days later on the 25th. As Stalin already had knowledge of the atomic bomb many months before he was explicitly informed by the US, Stalin wondered why Truman neglected to tell him until that late point, leaving the essential trust held by the wartime leaders questioned, therefore altering their …show more content…

Cominform was initially put into place in the October of 1947, and the intended purpose it held was to coordinate actions between Communist parties under Soviet direction, which meant Stalin’s direction. Cominform was a direct response to Truman’s Marshall Aid and Doctrine; an aid program set up to help the recovery of countries affected by the destruction of World War Two to whoever accepted it. Stalin wanted to ensure the already Communist countries who currently modelled his brand of communism were not tempted by the billions in aid that the US were offering. The undeniable unwillingness to accept aid from the previous wartime allies by Stalin, and his indisputable actions in order to prevent his now ‘Eastern Bloc’ from accepting any of said aid clearly highlights the newly formed division between East and West, hence a shift in the previously allied relationship between them, to one of disassociation and

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