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[[File:BerlinAirlift.jpeg|300px250px|left|thumbnail|}During the airlift in 1949]]
After World War II why did the Soviets and Allies mistrust each other and how did this apprehension lead to the Cold War? The Cold War (1945-1991) represented a series of localized conflicts and intense diplomatic rivalries between camps led by the capitalist United States and the Communist Soviet Union. This era also saw a massive increase in civilian and military technology, including thousands of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them across the planet.
== How did the Soviet Union take control of Eastern Europe? ==
The Soviet Union under dictator Josef Stalin had several overarching goals and fears in the waning days of the Second World War. Stalin kept in mind the devastation that Russia faced in successive crises including the First World War and the Russian Civil War. Stalin had a particular distrust for the Western Allies due to intervention by these powers against the Reds in the Russian Civil War and for abandoning Czechoslovakia before the war began. These are among the factors that pushed Stalin into signing a non-aggression pact with Germany in 1941. Now facing betrayal by Hitler, massive destruction, and about 20 million military and civilian deaths, the Soviet Union was in a unique position. Soviet Red Army troops now occupied almost half of Europe and were the largest military force in the world. <ref>Hopf, Ted. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199858489/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0199858489&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=4b31d28926cdf3ed12acd364e8016051 Reconstructing the Cold War: The Early Years, 1945-1958]</i> Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Page 45-48. </ref>
As Soviet troops displaced German ones Stalin promised free and fair elections across Eastern Europe. In some places, the exiled government returned and limited elections were held. However, many of these governments were forced into coalition governments with Communist-led Popular Fronts. Within several years these Popular Fronts seized power in every country occupied by Soviet troops and installed regimes loyal to Stalin.
== What were the United States' goals in Europe after World War II? ==
[[File:Marshall Plan poster.JPG|thumbthumbnail|200px250px|Marshall Plan poster]]
The United States had not intended to become involved in the conflict in 1939. The 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor led to massive American involvement in both the Atlantic and Pacific Wars. Propping up the Western Allies, U.S.-led troops occupied most of Western Europe, Greece, and much of Asia. President Roosevelt and his successor Harry Truman were led by a combination of democratic idealism with the harsh reality of the failures of the Treaty of Versailles. Seeking to learn from the mistakes from the end of World War I and the interwar era, the U.S. served as a stabilizing force against post-war chaos and Soviet expansionism.
Stalin rejected this aid and forced the Eastern European states to do the same. By the time the program wound down in 1951, the U.S. gave $13 billion in many forms of assistance. The Marshall Plan effectively restarted the European economy, allowing industrial and agricultural production to surpass prewar levels and beyond. This laid the foundation for a massive boom, including the future German “economic miracle.” <ref>Kindleberger, Charles. ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415567823/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0415567823&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=164d5be27313be8e5dc06b0282e5d54d Marshall Plan Days],'' New York: Routledge, 1987. Page 66.</ref>
== Where did the violence start after World War II? ==<div class="portal" style='float:right; width:35%'>====Related Articles===={{#dpl:category=20th Century History|ordermethod=firstedit|order=descending|count=7}}</div>[[File:Warsaw_Pact_and_NATO.png|300px250px|thumbthumbnail|left|The Warsaw Pact and NATO in the Cold War]]
The differing zones of occupation and goals invariably led to the first conflicts of the Cold War. Greece was engulfed by a civil war between pro-Western and Communist factions. The Soviets also threatened Turkey over the rights to the important Black Sea straits. It was due to this situation that President Truman announced the Truman Doctrine in 1947. The United States offered substantial military assistance to both nations to prevent an expansion of Soviet influence. With this aid, coupled with economic help, communism did not spread in either country. The two sides solidified into alliances: the Warsaw Pact dominated by the Soviets and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led by the U.S. <ref>Caldwell, Curt, ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1107480957/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1107480957&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=61ed535dfbb16cd1d8615c703ce4c0e5 NSC 68 and the Political Economy of the Early Cold War.]'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Page 211-215.</ref>
Updated January 28, 2019
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