y reports of Hitler’s plans to exterminate the Jews, and after Hitler’s plans became known in America, the War Department rejected pleas to bomb the gas chambers. If America had reacted differently, a lot of suffering and killing might have been prevented. World War II might not have happened, Hitler might have been stopped, and the Cold War might not exist. Even now America tries to ease their conscience by intervening in International conflicts. The Cold War was set in motion by the attitudes of Americans at the beginning of World War II. Americans were caught up in their economic misery, which shaped foreign policies for years to come. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, many Americans still preferred to stay out of the war. They wanted to be safe at any cost. The fateful conference of Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt at Yalta in 1945 is an example of the mind-set of the government. The deal that Roosevelt made gave Stalin control over vital industrial centers of America’s weakening Chinese ally. Roosevelt dealt with the war in the same way he had dealt with the Great Depression; he dealt with the most pressing problems first. The most pressing problem was to halt Hitler. He mistakenly thought he needed Russia to help, which resulted in the conference at Yalta. The deal was made out of necessity, not friendship, when the war ended; one viewed the other with a great deal of suspicion and rivalry. In the aftermath of the war, the two super-powers had a lot in common; each had a history of trying to export to the entire world their political doctrines. The two super-powers, amid conflicts of interests and misconceptions on each part, started a standoff that lasted for decades. The Cold World had begun. . ...
