Journal three: The Cold War was a conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union that began after World War II, in 1947. Although the nations never physically fought each other, they continued to exchange deadly threats for decades. This war marked a clear difference between American and Soviet traditions and their needs and interests after the war. America saw Stalin as untrustworthy as a result of refusing to hold free elections in countries occupied by the Soviet army after the war, even though the agreement had stated otherwise. This ultimately was a red flag for the west, they believed that Stalin would try to take over the world using force, because Communist ideology explicitly stated that Communism would ultimately consume all other forms of government and take over the entire world. Many Americans were against communism and thought it restricted rights and freedoms of the people, and free elections was a custom of the nation. In contrast, Soviets did not trust American, especially after they were consciously not informed of the Manhattan Project, or the building of an atomic bomb. Then after tragically succeeding in the bombing of Japan, America refused to share this new technology with USSR. As a result Soviets were afraid the United States might start a new war and use this technology against them. Overall, the clash of interests between these two nations existed primarily as a result of the west favoring democratically elected governments and independent European states, versus the Soviet Union which strived for a communist bloc of countries. This mutual distrust aligned with espionage and mass arms race led to the Cold war era. The foreign policy of containment was developed by George Kennan, he claimed that Communism in the Soviet Union had to be contained to stop it from expanding and spreading to other countries. It was the main focus