908 ★ CHAPTER 23 The United States and the Cold War
ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR
The Two Powers
The United States emerged from World War II as by far the world’s great-
est power. Although most of the army was quickly demobilized, the coun-
try boasted the world’s most powerful navy and air force. The United States
accounted for half the world’s manufacturing capacity. It alone possessed
the atomic bomb. As discussed in the previous chapter, the Roosevelt admin-
istration was determined to avoid a retreat to isolationism like the one that
followed World War I. It believed that the United States could lead the rest of
the world to a future of international cooperation, expanding democracy, and
ever- increasing living standards. New institutions like the United Nations and
World Bank had been created to promote these goals. American leaders also
believed that the nation’s security depended on the security of Europe and Asia,
and that American prosperity required global economic reconstruction.
The only power that in any way could rival the United States was the Soviet
Union, whose armies now occupied most of eastern Europe, including the east-
ern part of Germany. Its crucial role in defeating Hitler and its claim that com-
munism had wrested a vast backward nation into modernity gave the Soviet
Union considerable prestige in Europe and among colonial peoples struggling
for independence. Like the United States, the Soviets looked forward to a world
order modeled on their own society and values. Having lost more than 20 mil-
lion dead and suffered vast devastation during the war, however, Stalin’s gov-
ernment was in no position to embark on new military adventures. “Unless
they were completely out of their minds,” said American undersecretary of
state Dean Acheson, the Russians were hardly likely to go to war with the far
more powerful United States. But having done the largest amount of fighting
in the defeat of Hitler, the Soviet government remained determined to establish
a sphere of influence in eastern Europe, through which Germany had twice
invaded Russia in the past thirty years.
The Roots of Containment
FDR seems to have believed that the United States could maintain friendly
relations with the Soviet Union once World War II ended. In retrospect, how-
ever, it seems all but inevitable that the two major powers to emerge from the
war would come into conflict. Born of a common foe rather than common
long- term interests, values, or history, their wartime alliance began to unravel
almost from the day that peace was declared.
The first confrontation of the Cold War took place in the Middle East. At the
end of World War II, Soviet troops had occupied parts of northern Iran, hoping