After the war, Germany was divided into four zones of occupation by the United States, Britain, France, and the USSR. Stalin refused to allow freely elected governments to exist in the Eastern European countries that were occupied by the Soviet Union. The new president, Harry Truman, was not willing to compromise with Stalin over this issue, and thus the Cold War grew worse. The United States wanted Eastern Europe to live by the same democratic ideals that the United States lived by, which included freedom of speech, civil liberties, and free elections. But Stalin was fearful of the possibility of governments on the USSR's western border attacking his country, since it had happened twice befo

The West and the East were locked in a bitter stalemate. Truman cut off supplies and aid to the USSR and declared that the United States would not recognize any of the governments set up by Stalin if they were not established by the citizens' free will. The countries that were being controlled by the Soviet Union were East Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, which were all under communist rule. It was the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill that first referred to Europe being divided by an "iron curtain."

The Cold War was a fight between freedom and totalitarianism because Stalin was attempting to assert communist and dictatorial rule over all of Eastern Europe, whereas the United States wished to create free elections and spread democracy. It was a struggle between two opposing world views; communism and capitalism, and each side felt as though their ideals were correct.

Another very important element of the Cold War was the arms race. When

Some topics in this essay:
Soviet Union, Cold War, Eastern Europe, West East, East West, Latin America, Korea United, Soon Soviet, USSR Stalin, Hungary Poland, soviet union, cold war, free elections, arms race united, race united, freedom speech, arms race, spread communism, willing compromise, stalin attempting, eastern europe,