To what extent was the United States responsible for the collapse of the Grand Alliance at the end of the second world war? The Grand Alliance was a partnership between three superpower nations; Britain, United States and the USSR all of which shared two common enemies, Japan and Germany. The bombing of Pearl Harbour and the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 revealed that Germany and the United States would benefit from being allies, however ideological differences separated them politically. For example, Stalin had always been an icon of communism, whereas Roosevelt and Truman were much more democratic in their attitudes. There were early signs of tension between the big three, after Roosevelt’s death in 1945, and Winston Churchill's failure to win the election, Stalin had to quickly adapt to the new leaders within the alliance, as Attlee and Truman both brought capitalist ideas to the partnership. In March 1941 the lend lease scheme was established in which the US would ‘lend’ weaponry to the USSR to be paid back after the war had ended, yet in May 1945 Truman abruptly ended the lend lease programme. It could be argued that this is one of the factors that caused the Grand Alliance to collapse; it shocked Stalin, as he then knew that the trust within the group was decreasing, which led to him no longer trusting the U.S. On the other hand it could be argued that the USSR was committed to establishing Communist regimes in the Eastern states in hopes that he would create a ‘buffer zone’ to shield the USSR from attack. This went against Stalins agreement to accept the terms of the declaration on Liberate Europe which was