Roark, James L. The American Promise: A History of the United States. Boston, Massachusetts: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. Print. The Cold War was a period of economic, political, and military tension between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1991. After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became the two most powerful countries of the time . They were rivals where the Soviet Union wanted to gain more land and the United States did everything in its power to make sure that didn't happen. The mutual dislike these two had for each other led to national security, diplomatic tensions, and proxy wars. The United States and the United States decided to separate Berlin after the controversies of their meeting. The Soviets wanted to gain Poland but President Harry Truman rejected this demand at the time and instead revealed the atomic bomb he was working on. The Soviet Union almost immediately began planning its counterattack by devoting more time to its armed forces. But Truman in September 1945 went ahead and stopped the Lend-Leason Act, which basically was aid that the United States had provided to militaries in besieged nations like Britain, France, and the Soviet Union during World War II. Clearly, however, the plan failed when the Soviets decided to convince the satellite states to compensate for the losses. George Kennan at the time used a long telegram to communicate his thoughts on Soviet expansion, which led many Americans to live in fear. This fear led to the reason for the containment policy. In 1947 Truman passed the Truman Doctrine to hopefully stop this fear and the expansion of communism. The doctrine basically distributed money to third world nations like Greece and Turkey so they could become allies and help the United States with this damn... middle of paper...cold war years have dwindled in modern day . All that military spending left America deeply in debt. The United States in my opinion became a big bully after the Cold War and with the fear of nuclear weapons has driven much of today's economic issues. Europe was divided in half and after the Cold War it essentially remained that way. As the United States had implemented democracy in the West, it became rich with a free market economy. When the East became economically poor, they both continued to dislike each other and grew to handle different cultures. Now they are trying to unite and many problems are arising. For example, the fact that many citizens from the East are trying to settle in the West to benefit from jobs and free medical care. The West for the most part is doing better, so now there is tension whether the union will work or not.