1. What accounts for why the Soviet Union decided to formalize its East European alliance through the Warsaw Pact?

A) to convince the world that communism was the best choice

B) to pay off a debt to the Allies and the Empire of Japan

C) to create a counter-balance to the NATO alliance

D) to threaten the recalcitrant countries of the east

2. Why did the Cold War start?

A) At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States competed for global influence and power.

B) At the start of World War II, Hitler's pact with Stalin forced the United States to attack the Soviets before they joined the Allies.

C) At the end of World War II, Stalin believed that the United States and other western democracies were preparing to attack.

D) At the end of the Korean War, the Soviet Union believed the United States had successfully stopped the spread of communism in A

The answer for number one is B and the answer for number 2 is either D or C

1) C) to create a counter-balance to the NATO alliance

2) C) At the end of World War II, Stalin believed that the United States and other western democracies were preparing to attack.

Explanation:

1) The Treaty of Friendship, Collaboration and Mutual Assistance, better known as the Warsaw Pact for the city in which it was signed, was a military cooperation agreement signed on May 14, 1955 by the countries of the Eastern Bloc. Designed under the leadership of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), its express objective was to counteract the threat of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and in particular the rearmament of the German Federal Republic, to which the Agreements of Paris allowed to reorganize their armed forces. The Pact was dissolved on July 1, 1991.

2) The Cold War was a political, economic, social, military, informative and scientific confrontation initiated after the end of the Second World War between the Western (Western-Capitalist) bloc led by the United States, and the Eastern bloc (Eastern-Communist) led by the sovietic Union. Its origin is usually between 1945 and 1947, during the tensions of the postwar period, and lasted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union (beginning of perestroika in 1985, nuclear accident of Chernobyl in 1986, fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and failed coup in the USSR in 1991). Neither of the two blocks ever took direct actions against the other, which is why it was called "cold war". The reasons for this confrontation were essentially ideological and political. On the one hand, the Soviet Union financed and supported revolutions, guerrillas and socialist governments, while the United States gave open support and propagated destabilizations and coups, especially in Latin America and Africa. In both cases, human rights were seriously violated.