Soviet Union–United States relations

Soviet Union–United States relations were the relations between the Soviet Union and United States from the 1940s to the late 1980s. The Soviet Union and the United States were the two most powerful countries in the world after World War II. They were enemies during the Cold War because they had different ideas about how countries should be governed. The Soviet Union wanted countries to be Communist, while the United States wanted countries to be free and have a democracy. The two sides never fought directly, but they tried to prove their ways were better than each other's. The countries often tried to stop each other's plans, sent spies to spy on each other, and competed in sports. They also had a race to build nuclear weapons and threaten each other with destruction. The relations improved in the later part of the 1980s and the Soviet Union eventually collapsed and the United States and Soviet Union stopped being enemies.