Paranoid chill hand of Uncle Sam is what stirred the Cold War

Having spent some five years reading on the front pages of newspapers of the heroic exploits of ordinary Russians in the face of a common and unscrupulous enemy, who were after all holding down vast German land forces, people gave vent to warm and friendly feelings toward them. 
People were very much aware of the appalling suffering the Russians had endured, with some 20 million dead, mostly civilian. They had been forced to burn down their own homes and crops, and kill their livestock under the scorched-earth policy that was necessary to deny supplies to the despised advancing enemy.
After the war, most Europeans understood that the Russians’ devastated country faced a gigantic hurdle just to get back to normal living conditions, mainly food and shelter. It really wasn’t such a big issue that they were communist. Young Europeans had some interest in the writings of Karl Marx. The underlying tenet of Marxism, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”, seemed an ideal basis for them to approach their dilemma, albeit as a stepping stone to some improved system at a later date.
American-style capitalism, based on an “every-man-for-himself”, “dog-eat-dog” approach was not possible, let alone desirable.
The Americans saw it differently. Communists were atheists, whose objective was to take over the world and force the same philosophy on them. Some chance of that!
This from a country where all that the civilian population knew about the war was what they read in the newspapers and saw in newsreels at the movies. In fact, the US economy had benefited enormously financially from the war – providing and selling arms to favoured participants was a massive boon to their economy.
This was all building up to the now infamous Un-American Activities Committee, where you could be regarded with suspicion merely for joining a trade union!
The steady demonisation grew over the years, encompassing the outbreak of the Korean War, which was not met with much enthusiasm by the other participants and has eventually led to the current imbroglio. Unfortunately, recent world events seem to have shown that nothing much has changed over the years!
Tony Ash
Cha-Am