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I studied the Cold War very briefly during high school, and as of now my memory of what we learned is hazy at best. We focussed mainly on Vietnam as a conflict and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Today I read the thread about the US, UK and France going to war with the USSR over an event in Yugoslavia in 1944, and it got me thinking.

Ignoring this event entirely, the USSR was a firm ally of the west during WWII. Can someone please remind me why this alliance fell apart and the Cold War ensued? Was it solely because of the rigged (or lack of) elections in Eastern Europe leading to what were essentially Soviet colonies in the Iron Curtain? Is it possible for Stalin to actually allow these nations to choose for themselves, or was his personality far too dead set on a communist world?

What I'm asking is, do the world's two superpowers, the USA and the USSR, have to be enemies post WWII?
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