The main causes of the Cold War included vastly different political ideologies between the former Allies of the Second World War, and conflict over the future of a war-torn Europe. The advent of nuclear weapons by the US on Japan and Russia taking Berlin in Germany, brought the final push that would later lead to the end of World War two. However, the US’s nuclear capabilities left them as an uncontestable superpower in the international system. There was a moment of peace between the ideologically different allies, but the dividing of Germany became the root of political conflict that would ultimately lead to what is known as the Cold War. By July of 1945 the Allies met in Potsdam, Germany, Churchill and the US president who succeeded Roosevelt …show more content…
Berlin, the capital, was separated this way as well. Americans and Soviets stationed in the city witnessed the tension and antagonism first hand. The Soviets believed it was not just Hitler’s fault for the war but rather the imperialistic system that the German people established. Stalin saw the capitalist ideology or the western nations in Germany as the same threat that imperialistic Germany posed. Russia saw the nations of Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia as prizes of war that were freed by socialism. All were under Soviet control at the close of WW II and would go on to have socialist governments put in place. Remarks made by Stalin in Moscow February of 1946 had a tone of war that prompted what came to be known as the “long telegram". Written by a Soviet expert at the US embassy in Moscow, the long telegram advised containment of Soviet power. In March 1946, Winston Churchill gave a speech in Fulton, MO and coined the term “Iron Curtain". Iron Curtain alluded to the string of Soviet totalitarian states that divided Europe. He encouraged an alliance between English speaking nations that could resist Soviet goals of expansion and