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The partition and division of Germany drove a block in between both United States to USSR relations and West German to East German relations. It was clear that the wartime friendship between the Allies had broken down. It had been replaced by suspicion and accusation. During the Cold War, Germany became the center for all the tensions between Democracy and Communism. The location of Germany as the gateway between East and West Europe made it the ideal place for these political struggles to occur. When Russia had tried to expand in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they were checked by the rising power of the German state. Therefore, Russia attempted to begin its expansion across a now weakened Europe. Each side took every opportunity to denounce the policies of the plans of the other. A propaganda war developed. In this atmosphere of tension and recrimination, people began to talk about a Cold War. .
The differing beliefs of the USA and the USSR go some way to explaining why the Cold War developed, but not all the way. The USA and the USSR had emerged from the war as the two "superpowers". Only the USA and the USSR were able to do this. They were the superpowers. .
The Western powers were alarmed by Stalin's takeover of Eastern Europe. They had agreed that Eastern Europe would be a Soviet "sphere of influence" and that Stalin would heavily influence this region. However, they had not expected such complete Communist domination. They felt it should have been possible to have governments in Eastern Europe that were both democratic and friendly to the USSR. Stalin saw his policy in Eastern Europe as making himself secure, but Truman could only see the spread of Communism. .
When the Germans retreated from Greece in 1944, there were two groups- the Monarchists and the Communists- who wanted to rule the country. The Communists wanted Greece to be a Soviet republic. The Monarchists wanted the return of the king of Greece.
