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How Did Britain Affect The Cold War

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How Did Britain Affect The Cold War
The complex dynamic between the Soviet Union and the United States of America was not ever present, but evolved out of a series of key disagreements during World War II. With the onset of Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany shifted emphasis from an already dominated Western Europe to its eastern border with Russia. The betrayal of the Nazi-Soviet non aggression pact came as a surprise to Stalin, who quickly began mobilizing fighting aged men to bolster his vulnerable ground defenses. The resulting campaign lead to the death of some 20 million soldiers and citizens, all the while devastating numerous Russian population and industrial centers. Furthermore; the Nazi’s strategic turn forced an unconventional alliance between that of Britain, Russia and America. For the …show more content…
This distancing is most clearly depicted in the dealing of numerous national political crisis that unfolded under newly occupied Soviet and Western forces. Elections in war torn Italy and France had lead to massive gains within the Communist parties of each country. However; extending on earlier policies of Stalin, these parties operated with cooperation towards more traditional parties. The French communist leader Maurice Thorez going so far as to wish “the capitalist system to function according to its own laws.” Stalin also advocated for similar positions of reconciliation in Greece and China. The only instances of expansionism was in the occupation of Eastern Europe and North Korea, where a long process of implementing the communist system was beginning. Hardly the aggressive expansion feared by the West before the conclusion of World War II. Nor did the extension of Soviet political power warrant Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’ speech, which propagandized and overemphasised communist expansionism, which the work of Vadney looks to

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