With the end of World War II came the end of alliance between USSR and USA. United by a common goal to subdue Germany, USSR and USA fought together. But it was a partnership that was not to last. Due to a difference in ideologies, and the fact that USSR and USA were the two big superpowers at that time, mistrust and competitiveness emerged between USSR and USA. The Cold War had started.
Yalta Conference, 4-11 February 1945
Attended by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. One of their discussion was what to do with Germany once the war was over. It was decided to divide Germany into 4 parts, one part each for France, Britain, USA and USSR. However, they could not agree on how to govern Poland. If Poland was to be governed by an communist government, it was likely that the rest of Eastern Europe was to follow that pattern and vice versa. There were two different groups that was vying to form an government. They were the anti-communist London Poles and communist Lublin Poles. After the Warsaw uprising which saw the London Poles annihilated, The Lublin Poles took over. Under the Yalta agreement, USSR promised to include members of the London Poles in the government, but did not keep the promise.
Potsdamn Conference, 17 July-2nd August 1945
Attended by Truman, Attlee and Stalin. Hardly anything productive was produced. The only agreements were of German-Polish borders and German reparations. The soviet union was to receive industrial equipment from Western Germany, but this was not carried out. The soviet union wanted to run the rich German area of Ruhr and to share the occupation of Japan, but USA rejected both ideas. USA and Britain wanted a greater say in the running of things in Eastern Europe, but Stalin declined.
Due to these disagreements and conflicting ideologies, USSR and USA, former wartime allies, now turned against each other in the Cold War. With USA having used the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and USSR having successfully tested its own atomic bomb 4 years later, it was very likely that the Cold War could escalate into a Nuclear war. We will now look at how likely it was for the world to enter into Nuclear warfare.
