During the Cold War, the two countries involved were the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War started in 1953 and ended in 1962. The leaders of the Yalta Conference were Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin. This conference was established to re-unite and connect the war torn countries of Europe. Another important conference during this time was the Potsdam Conference. The leaders of the Potsdam conference were Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Harry Truman. The goal or reasoning of this conference was to determine the punishment of the Nazis. The postwar goals for the US were Capitalism, free market, rebuilding of Germany, and stopping Communism. The Soviet goals were having Germany becoming an Agrarian state, spreading Communism, getting an object into space and protecting their buffer zone. Characteristics of a communistic country include the ownership of land from the government, the government controls the economy, a single group of holds power, and all goods are equally distributed amongst the people. Capitalistic Countries basically have the opposite characteristics. The land is privately owned, people may own businesses, people can choose their own job, there is a competitive economy, and a limited government. The Soviets were a communistic state with a group of countries known as the buffer zone. The countries involved were known as the Satellite Nations. The United States tried to use containment to deal with the Soviet Union. This policy tried to stop the spread of Communism.