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Although relations between the Soviet Union and the United States had been strained in the years before World War II, the U.S.-Soviet alliance of 1941–1945 was marked by a great degree of cooperation and was essential to securing the defeat of Nazi Germany. Without the remarkable efforts of the [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080271594X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=080271594X&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=72cb5ceeffbcbbb89999241eeeea1cff Soviet Union on the Eastern Front], the United States and Great Britain would have been hard-pressed to score a decisive military victory over Nazi Germany.
====In 1939, the US and USSR were Enemies not Allies====
As late as 1939, it seemed highly improbable that the United States and the Soviet Union would forge an alliance. U.S.-Soviet relations had soured significantly following Stalin’s decision to sign a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany in August of 1939. The Soviet occupation of eastern Poland in September and the “Winter War” against Finland in December led [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544876806/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0544876806&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=00ddba26049ec89a0ae2dd3551af812e President Franklin Roosevelt ] to condemn the Soviet Union publicly as a “dictatorship as absolute as any other dictatorship in the world,” and to impose a “moral embargo” on the export of certain products to the Soviets.
Nevertheless, in spite of intense pressure to sever relations with the Soviet Union, Roosevelt never lost sight of the fact that Nazi Germany, not the Soviet Union, posed the greatest threat to world peace. In order to defeat that threat, Roosevelt confided that he “would hold hands with the devil” if necessary.
====US and USSR forge an uneasy alliance====
Several issues arose during the war that threatened the alliance. These included the Soviet refusal to aide the Polish Home Army during the Warsaw Uprising of August 1944, and the decision of British and U.S. officials to exclude the Soviets from secret negotiations with German officers in March of 1945 in an effort to secure the surrender of German troops in Italy. The most important disagreement, however, was over the opening of a second front in the West. Stalin’s troops struggled to hold the [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140284583/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0140284583&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=0fc0f6ecfe244fbde9197916df730787 Eastern front against the Nazi forces], and the Soviets began pleading for a British invasion of France immediately after the Nazi invasion in 1941. In 1942, Roosevelt unwisely promised the Soviets that the Allies would open the second front that autumn. Although Stalin only grumbled when the invasion was postponed until 1943, he exploded the following year when the invasion was postponed again until May of 1944. In retaliation, Stalin recalled his ambassadors from London and Washington and fears soon arose that the Soviets might seek a separate peace with Germany.
In spite of these differences, the defeat of Nazi Germany was a joint endeavor that could not have been accomplished without close cooperation and shared sacrifices. Militarily, the Soviets fought valiantly and suffered staggering casualties on the Eastern Front. When Great Britain and the United States finally invaded northern France in 1944, the Allies were finally able to drain Nazi Germany of its strength on two fronts. Finally, two devastating atomic bomb attacks against Japan by the United States, coupled with the Soviets’ decision to break their neutrality pact with Japan by invading Manchuria, finally led to the end of the war in the Pacific.
