Research Paper on:
Communism, Soviet Relations, and the Effects of the National Security Act, the Marshall Plan, and the Truman Doctrine

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
placed the United States in the Cold War against the Soviet Union. While this war was not fought on a specific battlefield, it did color relationships between two very powerful  and very determined countries throughout the latter part of the 20th century. Yet there was a time, less than a century ago, during which the two countries were, if not  actual friends, somewhat cordial toward one another. It wasnt until the aftermath of World War II, and the actions of U.S. President Harry Truman that the U.S. and Soviet Union  began regarding one another with distrust and suspicion. Through his "Truman Doctrine," Truman flung a challenge toward a Soviet leader who was beginning to hungrily eye the weakened nations of  World War II for possible conquest. In response to the U.S. arrogance, meanwhile, Soviet leader Josef Stalin grew to hate and mistrust the United States. While its difficult to blame  Harry Truman and his doctrines for the strength of the U.S.S.R. and communism, there is evidence that Trumans actions enraged the Soviet government to the point that it wanted to  be better than the U.S. at everything. World War II Aftermath In order to determine how, precisely, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall  Plan and the National Security Act impacted the USSR, its important to understand the relationship between these two great powers during and following World War II. At the Yalta Summit  meeting during February, 1945, Germany was to be split into four zones that were overseen by American, Soviet, British and French forces. Because the Soviets had done the most fighting,  and had suffered the greatest losses, it was believed that the Soviets should be the first to receive reparations from Germany (Goode, 1999). At the time, the Soviet Union was