The Soviets wanted to reshape Eastern Europe so that there would be a few countries to buffer them from the Germans, as they were invaded twice in the last fifty years. In 1945, to ensure that the Soviets were well protected they supported and helped install a communist governments in Romania, Bulgaria, and Poland. This drew the attention of Winston Churchill who explained to the United States that the Soviets were dividing the democratic nations of the West and the communist nations of the East. Churchill described this as an ‘Iron Curtain’ across Europe. (AmericanForeignRelations) The United States couldn’t allow for the spread of communism throughout Europe as it would lead to global …show more content…
The United States and the Soviets were both fearful of all out nuclear warfare. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest both nations got to nuclear war. After a failed attempt to invade Cuba by President Kennedy in the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban leader Fidel Castro reached a secret agreement with the Soviets to plant Soviet nuclear war missiles in Cuba facing the United States to prevent any future invasions. United States intelligence would gather that sites were being constructed. President Kennedy had to take a course of action. He soon ordered a military blockade to stop the Soviet ships from entering Cuba. The Soviets would reply by saying these were acts of aggression. In a crazy turn of event, the Soviet ships turned around and the crisis was over if the United States promised to never invade Cuba again.