The Geography of the Cold War: What Was Containment? Essay

It was a glorious meeting. On April 25, 1945, at the Elbe River in Germany, two powerful armies met. flood tide from opposite ends of Europe, the Americans and Russians had cut Hitlers Germany in two. Now at the Elbe, soldiers from the exit Army of the Soviet federation reached out their hands to their American counterparts. It was a time for great happiness. World War II, the deadliest war in all(a) of human history, was nearly over.Unfortunately, the warmth of the handshakes did not last. The Soviet Union and the coupled States had serious differences. Their greatest difference was over a political and economic system called communism.In its pure form, communism is a belief that undercover property should be replaced by community ownership. In the Soviet Union this idea was not easily accepted by the people. Russian leadership Vladmir Lenin and Joseph Stalin were ruthless in their elimination of those who had different ideas about Russias future. It is estimated that in the 1930s, Stalin was responsible for killing more than 10,000,000 Soviet people who he gestate were in his way.Soviet communists did not like capitalism. They opposed private ownership economies of the United States and its allies. Russian leaders believed that capitalism was doomed and that communism would blossom throughout the world. This caused great tension and the emergence of a new descriptor of war, a Cold War. Mistrust ran deep. In the words of Winston Churchill, it was as if an cast-iron curtain had been drawn between the Soviet-controlled countries in Eastern Europe and the westward democracies.The Soviets had suffered terribly in World War II, losing more than 27,000,000 soldiers and civilians. Stalin was determined that Germany would neer be able to strike Russia again. To protect Russia, Stalin wanted a pilot program zone in Eastern Europe. It was no secret that Stalin and his successors wanted to lard the Soviet Empire.