The Cold War developed as differences about the shape of the
postwar world created suspicion and distrust between the United
States and the Soviet Union. The first – and most difficult –
test case was Poland, the eastern half of which had been invaded
and occupied by the USSR in 1939. Moscow demanded a government
subject to Soviet influence; Washington wanted a more
independent, representative government following the Western
model. The Yalta Conference of February 1945 had produced an
agreement on Eastern Europe open to different interpretations.
It included a promise of "free and unfettered" elections.
Meeting with Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav
Molotov less than two weeks after becoming president, Truman
stood firm on Polish self-determination, lecturing the Soviet
diplomat about the need to implement the Yalta accords. When
Molotov protested, "I have never been talked to like that in my
life," Truman retorted, "Carry out your agreements and you won't
get talked to like that." Relations deteriorated from that point
onward.
During the closing months of World War II, Soviet military
forces occupied all of Central and Eastern Europe. Moscow used
its military power to support the efforts of the Communist
parties in Eastern Europe and crush the democratic parties.
Communists took over one nation after another. The process
concluded with a shocking coup d'etat in Czechoslovakia in 1948.
Public statements defined the beginning of the Cold War. In 1946
Stalin declared that international peace was impossible "under
the present capitalist development of the world economy." Former
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered a dramatic
speech in Fulton, Missouri, with Truman sitting on the platform.
"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic,"
Churchill said, "an iron curtain has descended across the
Continent." Britain and the United States, he declared, had to
work together to counter the Soviet threat.
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