Grand Alliance breakdown: ideology vs post-war aims

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Which of the following was the greater problem for the unity of the ‘Grand Alliance’ in wartime? i) The ideological differences between them. ii) The post-war aims of the USSR, the USA and Britain? (10 marks)

The ideological differences:

The post-war aims:

After Germany had been defeated many countries had no proper government. The Americans and the Soviets rushed to fill this power vacuum. The agreements and Yalta and Potsdam raised many problems and the attitudes of each country were quite different. The USA was keen to introduce democracy into Eastern Europe, Britain was concerned for Poland and Eastern Europe and did not like Stalin, and the Soviet Union was obsessed with the security of its country and wanted to gain a Soviet-friendly Poland. The agreements were interpreted differently and in some cases raised false expectations. In 1946 Churchill announced to the world that an iron curtain of communist Eastern Europe was falling upon them and that Stalin had broken “every one of the promises made at Yalta”. It is to be said that this was the official start of the Cold War.

USSR:

West thought their main aim was to destroy the Western powers

Thought they wanted global global comunism

what he really wanted was security for USSR

wanted reparations from Germany and its alies

To prevent future attacks Stalin wanted land in Poland.

wanted a friendly set of states in eastern Europe, in some states he didn't mind if communism was a minority:

an area under direct soviet control (poland romania and bulgaria)

an intermediate zone which was neither fully communist or capialist. This would mean there was a share of power an a bridge btween eastern europe and western europe and america. (Yugoslavia, austria, hungary,