Relations between the USA and Soviet Union underwent dramatic change in the years 1943-47. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that they had gone from allies during the Second World War to a rivalry which went onto dominate the latter part of the twentieth century and world politics, in a period known as the Cold War. This essay therefore hopes to analyse the key reasons that led to this breakdown in relations by looking chronologically at the long-term distrust suffered by nations, the growing and conflicting differences between Capitalism and Communism, the Soviet Expansion into Eastern Europe, the atomic bomb and finally the Marshall Plan in 1947.
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