The political relations going on in Europe during and directly after World War II had an enormous effect on laying the foundation for the Cold War. Wartime conferences such as Yalta and Terhran heartened the relationship between the communists and the capitalists. At the end of W.W.II American policy towards the Soviets changed drastically. The change in President in 1945 caused relations with Russia to worsen. Furthermore, other political contributions to the Cold War entailed the Truman Doctrin

(1) The first of the cold war tensions arose out of W.W.II conferences between the Soviet Union, America and, Great Britain. Tehran, the first major conference that led America to start the Cold War, included all three of these nations. At this conference the reshaping of post-war Europe was discussed (2) Later in February of 1945, the big three met again at Yalta. At this conference European boundaries, German reparations, and Polish elections were agreed upon. (3) Stalin, the Russian leader, agreed to hold free and fair elections. Later after Roosevelt, who attended these conferences, died and then Truman became president. He accused the Soviet leader, Stalin, of not holding up to his agreements at Yalta. (4) Stalin wanted to use Poland as a buffer zone to prevent any future invasions from happening through this area. During W.W.II the Soviets had lost 27 million, and Stalin made it clear that in no way would he allow this to happen again. (5) Stalin responded to Truman’s accusation with the following words, “I am ready to fulfill your request and do everything possible to reach a harmonious solution. But you demand too much of me. In other words, you demand that I renounce the interests of security of the Soviet Union, but I cannot turn against my country.”(6) On the other hand, American General Lucius Clay, who was stationed in post war Germany commented “ we must have the courage to proceed quickly with the establishment of a government for western Germany...42 million Germans in the British and American zones represent today the strongest outpost against Communist penetration that exists anywhere.”(7) At this response Truman changed his attitude toward the Soviets with the words, “ there isn’t any difference between the totalitarian Russian government and the Hitler government.”(8) Furthermore, America decided to keep Stalin out of the loop about the Manhattan project, which furthered distrust, because Stalin learn about the bomb through espionage.

The United States used propaganda and other influences to get the American public scared of communism and in support of the cold war. First congress began to use HUAC to stop films from having too much of a communist appeal to them (18) Furthermore, HUAC investigated people for being communist spies. Both Julius and Ethel Rosenburg and Alger Hiss, people accused of being communist spies suffered conviction. This caused the anti-Communist attitude in the United States to grow tremendously. Thus, the American government used a federal organization to further the public’s hatred of communism. Next an American Senator named Joseph R. McCarthy would lead a series of trials against communists in the United States. (19) Most of the people that Macarthy accused of being communist reached conviction. This happened despite the fact that many of the accus

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