Why did the Soviet Union turn on the USA and its allies?
They didn’t ‘turn’. We were allies for a particular reason, after that the old tensions of capitalism and communism returned (prior to Operation Barbarossa Hitler and Stalin were in a pact for two years – effectively carving Poland up between them – we tend to gloss over this bit). Given that USSR and USA emerged as superpowers after the war tended to magnify the differences. Also the fact that the US (exclusively) had nuclear weapons was a major point of conflict – until the west was betrayed by the Rosenbergs in the 50’s. Not unnaturally the USSR (not just Russia) wanted neighbours who were under their control (or friendly) – they had lost more than 25m people in the conflict (more people died in the Siege of Leningrad than in the whole of the UK & US combined). It began with Korea and then spread to Vietnam – which prompted the so-called domino theory – ie that all of Asia would become communist which worried the west. As one of the stated aims of the communist manifesto is the over
