Compare and Contrast the Roles of Truman and Stalin in the Breakdown of East–West Relations.

Compare and contrast the roles of Truman and Stalin in the breakdown of East–West relations.
Stalin believed in communism, the system were state controlled production of goods and rejected any kind of private ownership. Communism regime believed that in order to survive there had to be world revolution that would spread the ideology across other countries and lead all people to be equal. However, during the World War II that could be seen as another attempt of spreading the communist ideology, Stalin’s USSR had suffered enormously: 25 million people we killed, 1700 cities were destroyed, 70% of industries collapsed. Stalin knew that he had to end the war, because his USSR was in bad condition and American aid could help the USSR to recover. However, he was also aware of different ideologies between Russia and America. He wanted to protect Russian security and control the Eastern Europe, which would be Russian sphere of influence. He also wanted to prevent Germany recovery as a source of possible disputes and introduce communism to that country. This is why he claimed his right to the East Germany, to introduce communism and single party state in one part, and then to control whole country.   During the conference in Yalta he signed ‘The declaration of Liberated Europe’ and promised democratic elections to the Eastern Europe. At the Potsdam in 1945 Western leaders claimed that Stalin did not follow ‘The Declaration of Free Europe’. However, we might say that from communism point of view he did follow the declaration about free elections. According to communism ideology single party states that were controlled by proletariat and restriction of freedom of speech for minority (in this case people who were pro capitalism) were seen as democratic moves that were suppose to guarantee protection to the society in that system.
Truman was the successor after Roosevelt. He stranded behind capitalist America that believed in ‘Open Door’ policy, private ownership, promotion...