Right After WWII

Well, right before the war ended, the U.S. created and developed the technology for the atomic bomb. The U.S. told all of their allies, except one. Guess who that was? The Soviet Union! We didn't trust them, so we didn't tell them about it. Simple as that. Then Stalin found out and got really mad. We also didn't tell him about the Hiroshima or Nagasaki bombings. That also made him mad. We didn't tell them about it because we didn't want them to know about the atomic bomb. They would want that technology and we didn't want to give it to them. It would give them a chance to use it against us in the future. Then he trusted us as much as... Well, he really didn't trust us at all. The relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union got just that much worse.

Before WWII

When Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, we decided to help through the Lend-Lease Act. Roosevelt said,"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Russia is an enemy of Hitler. The U.S. is not a fan of Hitler either, so Russia was our friend. We wanted to help out Britain, even though we were trying to stay neutral. I didn't think we trusted the Soviet Union before WWII, now that i think of it. Before WWII, Stalin made a nonaggression pact with Hitler. The pact said that they wouldn't attack each other. Plus, we didn't trust Stalin because he wasn't a democracy, and what he called "communism," wasn't true communism. It was more like a harsh dictatorship.

The U.S. vs. the Soviet Union

We had very different ideas for a society than the Soviet Union. The ideas were pretty much the exact opposite.

The Soviet Union Flag

The Soviet Union's main idea was communism. The state controlled all the property and economic activities. They also wanted a totalitarian government with no opposing parties. The U.S., on the other hand, had very different ideas.

The United States flag

The U.S.'s main idea was capitalism and democracy. They wanted private citizens to control almost all of the economic activity. The government would also be decided by the population voting and electing a president and congress from opposing political parties.

So, its seems obvious that the U.S. and the Soviet Union would constantly be at odds. A major conflict was only a matter of time.