Let’s Learn About the Cold War: Part 4 - Truman and Stalin Published July 29, 2015 By Senior Airman Sean D. Smith Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- Through the Cold War both the United States and the Soviet Union would have several leaders, but at the beginning, the men in charge were Joseph Stalin and Harry S. Truman. Stalin was influenced by the writings of Vladmir Lenin, and he participated in Lenin's efforts to take control of Russia from the provisional government that followed the fall of Tsars in 1917. He later became General Secretary, and would later become Premiere of the Soviet Union. He saw the USSR through World War II, and it was his campaign of communist expansion that started the ball rolling on the Cold War. Stalin was known for his ruthless style of government, with his approach to communism being compared by some to simple tyranny. His rule was characterized by forced labor and exile, along with purges and famines. There are no definitive numbers on how many people died because of his leadership, but in the late 1980s, Georgian Historian Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev estimated that Stalin was responsible for 20 million deaths during his rule, not including the 20 million Soviets that died during World War II. There is no precise tally. He is not remembered as a compassionate ruler, and he remains a controversial figure. The American president that would face off with Stalin at the beginning of the Cold War was Harry S. Truman. Truman was from rural Missouri; he wanted to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point, but his eyesight disqualified him. He was later able to enlist with the National Guard by memorizing the eye chart. He fought in World War I as an artillery officer, and after the war, he became a county judge in Missouri, then a senator. Franklin D. Roosevelt was president at the time, but his health was declining. When worries surfaced that FDR might not survive his fourth term, Truman was brought in to replace the current Vice President, Henry Wallace, in 1945. President Roosevelt died less than three months later, and Truman took the presidency. The war in Europe was wrapping up nicely in Truman's early days in office, but the war in Japan was expected to go on for some time, leading Truman to approve the use of nuclear weapons in an effort to spare American lives that would be lost in a conventional invasion. Truman's decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki attaches a measure of permanent controversy to his presidency, but in general, history looks favorably on him. With the Axis powers soundly defeated, the Soviet Union was the main threat for America to contend with. There was no longer a common enemy to distract them. Joseph Stalin began a push to spread communism, and Harry S. Truman initiated the campaign to contain it. Next time: Containment