Overview and Causes
The Cold War was "fought" between the Soviet Union and the United States. It lasted from 1945 to 1991. One of the causes, was the deterioration of relationships in W.W.II. This happened when the U.S. joined the war. The Soviets were barely holding their ground by using winter to stop the Germans from invading. Instead of helping the Soviets, the U.S. fought on the western front with the British. This culminated tension between the two countries. Another point that created mistrust was when the U.S. was preparing to invade Japan. The Soviet Union only joined forces after the U.S. had attacked with nuclear bombs and had landed on Japan. The Yalta Conference did nothing to help relations. Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt argued over how to rebuild Europe after the war. The U.S. and the Soviet Union butted heads once again. The other conference that would cause many problems in the Cold War was the conference at Potsdam. Here Joseph Stalin, Harry Truman and Clement Attlee discussed what to do with Poland, Germany, Japan and other territories in the aftermath of W.W.II. This included whether the country would be Communist or a Democracy.
There are several differences between Communism and Democracy. In Communism everyone is equal, it is a classless society. Everyone cooperates to reach their goal. Their are no luxury items and it is controlled by the government. Democracy is based on luxury items. It runs on the policy of survival of the fittest and is a class society. Their is competition and is controlled by the people.
To protect themselves from western attack the Soviet Union created satellite nations along their border. These countries were Yugoslavia, Albania, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovak, Germany and Hungary. To stop the spread of Communism the U.S. employed the hard line policy. This meant the U.S. would stop the Soviet Union before they could get a hold of the world. The U.S. used this when helping Greece and Turkey stay free nations. They also did this with the Marshal Plan. When Czech falls to Communism the U.S. immediately gave money to Europe to prevent more Communist states.