On 10/10/09, Michelle Nicole wrote:
> Hello,
>
> My name is Michelle, and I would really like some help
> please! I have a test on Monday on Wartime Allies. I only
> have one question: Why were the Wartime Allies of 1945
> becoming so divided by 1947-1948 ?

I don't mind a student coming on the site - it's happened
before. But what do you think about the question? It's an
important one - what was dividing the wartime allies?

Do you have a textbook?
A short answer would be - having defeated the Germans
together, the US and the Soviet Union both emerged from the
war as victorious great powers. And both now had troops
throughout Europe - and neither wanted to give way.

Perhaps especially the Soviet Union because the country had
lost 27 million people in the war to our 185,000. Some of the
war had been fought on Russian territory and they suffered
millions of civilian deaths. Russia was very determined that
this would never happen again - no army would again invade
Russian soil.

So the Soviet Union refused to pull out their troops. The
countries formerly occupied by the Germany that had been
liberated by the Russian army remained in Russian control.
Rumania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania, and half of
Germany.

That made the US very nervous - it made the occupied
countries very nervous too. The US had long had a great
distrust of communism and communist countries and now a
communist country controlled a huge portion of Europe.

The other reason the powers became divided is simply that the
war was over - their 'unity' was based on the presence of a
common enemy. The US and the Soviet Union distrusted and
disliked each other before the war. After the war was over,
they were again to free to openly dislike and distrust each
other and they did.

While constantly trying to outwit each other and constantly
fearing that each other was planning to drop a bomb.
>
> Thank you so much :)

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