World War II
During World War II, USSR and USA worked together to oust Hitler from power, however even during this partnership, relationships were not all good:
The Rift Between the Two Super Powers
This cartoon shows the building rift between the two nations representing the escalation of the tension to start the Cold War after World War II.
There were many misunderstandings that arose during the war. Firstly, USSR had signed a Nazi-Soviet Pact with Germany. While the USA saw this as USSR showing their aggresiveness of taking over the world, the USSR also had a point when the Allies(Britan and France) were reluctant to join the USSR as allies.
The Western Allies "had forced" Stalin into Hitlers arms
There was also dissatisfaction of the USSR when there were long periods of times when they were the only superpower fighting the Germans. The allies were reluctant to set up a Second Front in Europe to attack Germany and took a long while before they decided to send in troops to aid the USSR. Stalin saw this as the Allies unwilling to help USSR while the Allies claimed that they were too busy with Japan(in the case of USA) or too weak to face Germany(Britan). However, USA and Britan did aid USSR in the form of loans and supplies.
The Atomic Bomb that USA dropped in Japan was another reason for the Cold War. It had sparked an arms race for superiority in the field of military technology. The reason why the Cold War remained "cold" could be attributed to the fact that a hot war involving nuclear arms would have destroyed both nations.
Arrows representing the "harmless" war of words and disputes while the stockpile of nuclear weapons that are not launched in fear that the other nation would launch the nuclear missile on them too.
In conclusion, World War II was not only the time where the USA and USSR worked together, it was the time where USA ans USSR rose to become super powers. It was also the time where misunderstandings started to deepen.
kangraye
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