Elbe River in Germany
It was April 25, 1945. Soldiers were celebrating in the Elbe River in Germany and Allied soldiers from both America and the USSR. Nazi Germany was finally defeated and the world was at peace. However this happiness would not last long. Europe was financially unstable and needed help but the US and the Soviet Union had very different ways of solving this problem. The Soviet Union believed in communism. By definition, communism is the economic belief that private property is forbidden and everyone owns the same property. The Soviet Union wanted to unite all of Europe into one huge communist nation. America however believed in capitalism. Capitalism is the economic belief that private ownership should be allowed. Many political figures in the USSR believed that Capitalism was destined to fail and that everyone should should become communist. However, America believed that the countries should decide whether or not they want to be communist. To accomplish this, America decided to stop the spread of communism with containment. Containment was used to “contain” communism from where it is. To do this, President Harry S. Truman declared that “The United States would support ‘free people’”. This was called the Truman Doctrine and mainly helped countries like Greece and Turkey who were being endangered by communist countries. After that, America started the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was used as a way to bribe Europe ito disliking communism by donating over 12 billion dollars to help Europe get back on its feet. Soon America and Russia started testing each others will to stay true to their plans of expansion and containment.
WWII had ended and Europe was split into two parts, West Germany and East Germany with West Germany occupied by the countries of America, Great Britain, and France while East Germany was occupied by the USSR. America was tensed and not sure what to expect from Russia. However, a telegram unexpectedly came on February 22, 1946 by a mysterious man who went by the name X. In this telegram, X made two statements clear. The first statement was that Stalin