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The seeds of hostility between the United States and the U.S.S.R began near the end of World War I. The Bolsheviks (later communists), led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the existing Russian government. The socialist Bolshevik regime believed in all men being equal, although democracy certainly wasn't part of their intentions. The western powers looked on with horror at the Bolshevik Revolution. Winston Churchill, British secretary of state for war wrote that, "civilisation is being completely extinguished over gigantic areas, while Bolsheviks hop on and caper like troops of ferocious Baboons." The allies felt they must try and crush the Bolshevik movement and sent in fourteen thousand troops, however, they failed to stop communism taking over Russia. In December 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R) was created, under the communist control of the ruthless, Joseph Stalin. .
President Woodrow Wilson, and the United States, offered an alternative to communism. Wilson had initially kept the United States neutral in the Great War but in 1917 he proclaimed, that the "world must be kept safe for democracy." Wilson set his fourteen points out which secured open markets, individual democracy, self-determination, individual freedom and national wealth. Wilson wanted to project good, healthy, liberal American values into the heart of world politics. Much to the anger and annoyance of Russia, who believed in much the opposite. The century would be left to witness the rivalry between these opposing ideologies: Lenin's state communism and Wilson's liberal, free enterprise capitalism.
It is possible to say that the Cold War was a war of Communism versus Capitalism. However, Communism was prominent in China and towards the end of the Cold War U.S-Chinese relations were relatively good. So it is possible to say that, even though the U.S was anti-Communist; the war wasn't over Communism but a hatred of two powerful and well-equipped nations.
