Deterioration of the american
Deterioration of the american-American and Soviet relations deteriorated in the decade following World War II. The three factors that had the most effect on that relationship were the agreements made at the Yalta Conference, the Korean War, and McCarthyism.
The agreements of the Yalta Conference began the deterioration of the American-Soviet relationship. Some of the decisions taken at Yalta pertained to Europe. The most critical of these had to do with the liberated nations of eastern Europe. Roosevelt and Churchill rejected Stalin's proposal that they accept the Lublin government in Poland. Instead, the three leaders agreed on a reorganization of the Polish government to include leaders from abroad- this provisional government to be "pledged to the holding of free and unfettered elections as soon as possible." After the war, the Soviet Union set up a puppet government in Poland and the free elections promised them never surfaced. For liberated Europe in general, the conference promised "interim governmental authorities broadly representative of all democratic elements in the population and pledged to the earliest possible establishment through free elections of governments responsive to the will of the people." Stalin agreed to that concession thinking that the libe4rated European nations would see the Soviet Union as their saviors and create their own communist governments. When that did not happen, Stalin wiped out all opposition and set up his own governments in those areas. With regard to Germany, the conference postponed decisions on dismemberment and on future frontiers, endorsed the EAC provisions for zonal occupation. The Yalta discussions also dealt with the Orient, where the American Joint Chiefs were eager to secure from Stalin a precise commitment about entering the war. Some feared that Russia would let the United States undertake a costly invasion of Japan and then move into Manchuria and China at the last minute to reap the benefits of victory. In secret discussions with Roosevelt, Stalin agreed to declare war on Japan within two or three months after the surrender of Germany on condition that the Kurile Islands and southern Sakhalin be restored to Russia and that the commercial interest of the Soviet Union in Dairen (Luda) and its rail communications be recognized. When Roosevelt obtained the assent of Chiang Kai-shek to these measures, the Soviet Union would agree "that China shall retain full sovereignty in Manchuria" and would conclude...
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