Who would have won if the Red Army had gone to war against the western Allies immediately after it had conquered Berlin?
Let's be honest: at the end of World War II, every nation with the exception of the US was devastated. Germany, Japan, and Italy were entirely overran, France was having to recover from both the German invasion and the Allies invading back. Much of England was hurt from bombings, and the USSR was completely destroyed by their own war effort, first with the Nazi invasion and then eating up whatever was left of their own resources pushing the Nazis back.Now let's get this out of the way: no one was ever going to conquer the Russian heartland. When Vizzini the Sicilian said the greatest blunder is "Never get into a land war in Asia." The point is that huge countries have enough room to just keep backing up until the invaders make a lethal mistake or overextend their supply lines.That all being said, the US had air superiority (probably air supremacy), sea supremacy, the ability to deploy from Japan, Korea, the old Republic of China, Turkey, Germany, Greece, or from Alaska to attack Soviet threats at will.The Americans could have relatively quickly have pushed the Soviet Army from Berlin, through Poland, and back behind their own borders. They could have controlled all strategic points in Asia and the Middle East. And remember this: the Soviets pretty much stole every bit of Atomic knowledge and technology from the US. If the US had simply locked down their intelligence, and been serious about trying Soviet spies like Julius Rosenberg and Alger Hiss passing atomic secrets to the Soviets, the US would have been the only atomic nation for years to come, giving them another massive card to play if the Soviets thought about bringing war against the Allies.The fact that the Soviets did nothing is a sure sign that they were in no position to do anything. Patton believed that in the weeks after the war, the time was ripe to attack and overthrow the brutal Soviet regime. The US and especially the allies lacked the will to go through another multi-year war against the Soviet Union, but just because the Soviet Union was on equal footing militarily with the US ten years later, they stood no chance in the months after Berlin fell against the US.
The USSR had the largest active army in the world. Why didn't they continue invading Western Europe in 1945 after the Nazis were defeated?
I would like to refute the answers hear which say ‘The Red Army would have beaten the allies’ because the allies had a number of advantages.Nuclear Weapons: The US, while at first building bombs slowly, still would have been capable of building a bomb or two a month. While it would have been difficult to just drop a Little Boy on Moscow, the bombs nevertheless would likely have made a massive impact of Soviet Morale, and would all but prevent the Soviets from large troop formations.German Scientists: After WWII, Germany had hundreds of skilled engineers and inventors that went to the US, many of who weren’t fond of the former Nazi reign. But make no mistake: these guys HATED the Soviets. They would also possess the secrets to German Rocket technology, so even if the Allies could still attack Soviet Armies from long distances without even needing air superiority. Which brings me to..Air Power: The Soviet Air Force was both smaller and inferior to the combined USAF & RAF. While the Soviets certainly improved, their converted 20’s Biplanes and their sluggish bombers weren’t a match for British Spitfires and American P-51’s.Allies: While for much of the war in Europe the allies had few forces beyond America and the British Commonwealth (apart from some exiled French, Benelux, & Scandinavian units), by this point the allies had France, Italy (whose people were tired of the Fascists), the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Greece, maybe even Turkey. At the same time, the Soviets haven’t sent up puppet states in Eastern Europe yet, so they would be fighting rebels in areas like Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary.Manpower: The Soviet army was bled dry. They lost over twenty million people in combat alone. They lost millions of civilians in occupations, millions due to famine (though this time there would be no allies relief) and there simply wasn’t many soldiers left. Sure, they had a huge army, but there was almost nobody to replace any soldiers they would lose.Eastern Forces: The US was fighting Europe while simultaneously fighting in the Pacific. Not only would the US now only focus on one front, but it would also get all the veterans and equipment tied up in JapanAmerica didn’t invade because we didn’t have a reason and because it would have costed millions of lives, and nobody had attacked us to provoke this. But saying the Red Army was stronger than the allies by the end of the war is a bit silly.
Why didn't the USA invade the Soviet Union while the Soviets had no nuclear weapons 1945-1949? Did the USA have any nukes?
1. Because they would have lost more than they gained. The larger (in Europe) and better equipped German Army had just been totally destroyed by the Soviets trying exactly that. The Germans had sharpened the Soviet forces over 4 years (compared to 18 months experience for the US+allies) so the Soviets would have destroyed the US and allied armies in Europe in very short order and the West would be reduced to the USA alone with the Russians taking all the German secret weapons.2. In response to the Germans the Soviets had dispersed industrially all over Siberia so there was no chance of a king hit with atomic weapons, especially given their slow rate of production.3. The KGB had infiltrated the west at all levels4. Six year of frenzied global murder had killed 3% of the world's population (a third of them Soviets) and only a crazy person wants to keep doing that.
Why did Stalin want Britain...?
A. Throughout 1942 Stalin asked Britain and the US to open a second front. Germany was in the middle of Operation Barbarossa, invasion of the Soviet Union. A second front would help Stalin out by slitting Germany's forces in two and would weaken the attack on the Soviet Union. General Eisenhower and P.M. Churchill debated where would the second front be. The best place to open a second front would have to be somewhere close to Britain, since it would be easy to organize and deliver troops. The first place to open a second front was an amphibious assault on Calais, France. Assaulting Calais was the shortest distance between France and Britain. But thinking that the Germans might know that, the Allies later chose the area of Normandy, France. B. The opening of the second front hurt Germany because it split its resources and troops between the Eastern Front and the newly open Western Front in 1944.
Was there any indication during WW II that the Cold War would follow and who was responsible for the outbreak?
The major indication was BEFORE the war started: so-called Munich Pact of 1938 between Britain+France and Nazi Germany was designed against USSR. In 1945 Churchill and Truman just continued their pre-war policy. Of course, they are the main warmongers.
Why was Japan not divided like how Germany was divided after the war?
Germany and Berlin was divided into 4 parts. Why was Japan and Tokyo not divided into 2 parts, Since it was the russians and Americans who fought in the pacific? And instead Russia and America fought over Korea.
Why did the United States and the Soviet Union never go directly to war against each other?
the United States and the Soviet Union never went directly to war against each other because they wanted to avoid nuclear war, which would've been extremely devastating.