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Why Superpower Relations Collapsed after 1945 (The creation of Soviet…
Why Superpower Relations Collapsed after 1945
The USA and the Soviet Union were suspicious of each other
The Soviet Union feared that the West wanted to impose their beliefs on the Soviet people
The Soviet Union followed Communism
The West feared that the Soviet Union wanted to spread its beliefs worldwide.
The USA and British followed Capitalism
Their opposing ideologies created tension between them
Truman and Attlee were new to diplomatic discussions so it was harder for them to get their way and agree with Stalin.
Truman did not like the Soviets at all and was much more suspicious about Stalin's motives than Roosevelt had been and believed that the Soviets were keen to spread communism worldwide and bring down capitalist democracy.
Truman used a 'get tough' approach
The creation of Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were conquered by the Soviet Union in 1940 and were treated as if they were part of the Soviet Union
Yugoslavia and Albania were also communist countries but were never occupied by the Soviet Red Army so they had more independence than other countries that boredered the Soviet Union.
Stalin turned six other countries into satellite states with communist government and little genuine independence from the Soviet Union.
Truman saw this as evidence that the Soviet Union wanted to spread communism worldwide and relations between the USA and the Soviet Union became worse.
The Soviet Union used force and manipulation to turn countries into satellite states
The Long Telegram and The Novikov Telegram
The Long Telegram worried the American government
The Long Telegram reported that Stalin wanted to see the destruction of capitalism and felt the world outside the Soviet Union was unfriendly and looking to destroy communism.
However, Kennan believed that the Soviet Union was not self-destructive and so if faced with strong resistance, would soften its position.
The American Government agreed with Kennan that there should be a determined policy of 'containment' to stop communism from spreading.
Churchill's speech in the USA reflected the American point of view and called the border between East and West "an iron curtain"
Novikov's Telegram said that the USA wanted to use its massive military power to dominate the world. He believe that since Roosevelt's death, the American's no longer wanted to co-operate with the Soviet Union and that the American people world support their government if this led to war.
This encouraged Stalin to take control of the countries on his border.
The Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine indicated the beginnings of a new approach to international relations for the USA.
USA stopped following their policy of isolationism.
The USA set its self up as the leader of the fight against communism and isolationism was replaced with containment
The Marshall Plan provided economic aid to help war-torn countries in order to stop communism from taking over in Western Europe.
The USA gave $13.7 billion of aid
The Soviet Union created comicon and cominform to combat the Marshal Plan