Tension Arises Between the Soviet Union and the West

Immediately after World War I, decades before the Cold War is thought to have begun, Soviet leaders would have been suspicious of Western Powers. The American and British tried to break up the communist revolution. Later on in history, Stalin became a totalitarian leader. Stalin took private fields as government owned land and killed poor workers. Stalin's comrades were arrested in order to create fear and make people follow him. The truth was kept secret because people knew that they could be shot for defying Stalin. However, despite this, Western Powers still became suspicious of Stalin's leadership in the Soviet Union. President Roosevelt described the Soviet Union as a dictatorship like no other, attacking countries that were no threat to them. Graves of Polish officers were found in 1940 likely to have been killed by the Soviet Leadership. However, British and American government's ignored the finding because they needed an alliance with the USSR. At the Tehran Conference, it was agreed that Stalin will be able to control part of Eastern Europe and Poland and then give Poland part of Germany. However, later, the Poles were encouraged to rise up only to be stopped by the Soviet Union. At the Yalta conference, it was agreed that all three powers would govern Germany, the Soviet Union came in against Japan, and Stalin agreed to keep the Polish Elections fair. But, their was still tension between the Western Powers and the USSR. This tension arose at the Potsdam conference. The conference was supposed to be to negotiate terms for the end of World War II, but the allies couldn't agree on different reforms. This caused strains between countries relationships and lead to Potsdam being characterized as a "bad-tempered conference." The tension increased between the United States and the Soviet Union eventually leading to the Cold War.