Soc.#5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Soc.#5 - Essay Example They wanted the world to be a safe place to live in and every peace-loving nation had a right to live their own life, determine their own institutions and be assured of justice. For the sake of world peace the United States developed a Fourteen Point Program. These included granting independence to all the important European states. The US determined that how the other nations treat Russia in the coming months would be an acid test of their good will. It would also demonstrate to what extent Russia was needed by these European nations and whether they needed Russia’s sympathy at all. The Fourteen Point Plan also demanded that the invaded portions in every nation should be restored by Russia and that the United States would be partners with all such governments that fought against the imperialists. This made the Soviets become distrustful towards the United States. Another reason why the soviets developed distrust in the United States was when they refused to help Russia’s reconstruction after the war under the Lend-Lease Act of 1941. By the end of summer of 1945, after the WWII had ended, the United States knew that the Soviet economy was in a state of near collapse. The Soviets had lost 20 million soldiers during the war and another 20-30 million during Stalin’s decade of purge trials. Any number of factories and railroad tracks had been destroyed. Stalin had been able to fulfill his promise of industrialization during the Five Year Plan to his people but all that been achieved were now in a devastated condition. Because of all the destruction that had taken place in Russia, United States knew they were in a stronger position and when the Soviets approached the United States for the much-needed economic aid for recovery, they were denied this privilege. The Soviets’ request for a six billion dollar loan had already been denied. Under the Lend-Lease Act of 1941, earlier the United States had shipped