Abstract

A few years after World War II Bulgaria fell under communist rule as a single party state. Her loyalty to Moscow was unconditional and the United States failed to support the democratic opposition there. And yet, although she never was an object of bargain between the USSR and the USA, the United States never stopped pursuing its interests there. The purpose of this case study is to explore the view of Bulgaria from ‘the other side’, namely the place of Bulgaria in the American political planning in the early Cold war years. For this purpose a set of diplomatic papers, archival documents, primary and secondary sources were used and analyzed in order to reveal the details of the US conduct and approaches to the Soviet satellite. The results of this research show to what extend the American politics concerning Bulgaria challenged the Soviet interests and became a source of tension.