The Shotgun Marriage
After World War II, it became apparent to both America and Britain that Joseph Stalin could not be trusted. This caused the relationship between the countries to become unstable especially when the soviets refused to eliminate their atomic weapons and join the national bank. The "Shotgun Marriage", named because of the quick relationship that was almost forced after the end of WWII, would cause high tensions and a lack of trust between all three of the nations. Stalin, for some time, would not join the United Nations for different reasons. He believed that America and other nations would try to kick Communism out the door and force Democracy in. This would cause Stalin to lose power and control over the many smaller countries surrounding Russia. On the other hand, both America and Britain believed that Communism would be a major threat to Democracy and did not want it to spread outside of the U.S.S.R. This idea of the "domino effect" would influence the "Containment Plan".
Self Determination And The Long Telegram
After WWII, communist leaders were running satellite nations, a buffer nation between an enemy country and the mother country controlling the satellite nations. This was a clear violation of previous made agreements from past war conferences. These satellite countries had no say in determining their statehood. The Long Telegram would also cause America to set out its policy of Containment. When George Kennan, the man responsible for helping to set up an American embassy in the Soviet Union in 1933, wrote the famous telegram to the Department of State. Kennan, afraid of the U.S.S.R's ability to possibly spread communism to other countries like Iran and Turkey, believed that the soviets would try to weaken the Western Hemisphere.
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The Iron Curtain
The biggest problem for America and Britain was the possibility of the spread of Communism. During the Tehran Conference in 1943, the Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill, and the USSR General Secretary, Joseph Stalin, clashed over who should control the Eastern European countries. Because Stalin was not trusted by the other world leaders, America and Britain saw him, and more importantly, Communism as a threat to Capitalism and Democracy. This caused Germany to be split between the occupation of the Soviets and the Allied armies. Because of this Winston Churchill gave his famous "Iron Curtain" Speech in Fulton, Missouri that would cover the issue of the spread of Communism.