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The Soviet Union And Capitalist America

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“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” The Cold War placed most of the post-war world into a perpetual state of paranoia and dramatically rose tensions between both world powers and their respective ideologies; the Communist Soviet Union and Capitalist America. Both of these powers were in a race to have the advantage over one another, with accelerations in arms developments and eventually creating a standoff between the the Western and Eastern blocs. Two national leaders were very prevalent in bringing a significant amount of change to the European Region, the first leader being Harry Truman (1945-1953) who introduced the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan with the slogan “It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities and outside pressures” The second significant leader who exacted significant change in the European Region and subsequently culminated the Cold War was Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-1991) whose policies of Glasnost ‘Openness’ and Economic, Political and Social Perestroika ‘Restructuring’ followed his belief that “It would be naive to think that the problems plaguing mankind today can be solved with means and methods which were applied or seemed to work in the past. . .” Both leaders exacted changes that were crucial in shaping the European region during the Cold War.

President Harry Truman was inaugurated as

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