american history
the
cold war
*at the potsdam conference,
the allies divided up europe. most of eastern europe ended up as
soviet satellites behind the iron curtain. furthermore, the
german capital of berlin, although jointly occupied by the us, uk,
france, and ussr, was entirely within the soviet occupation zone, which
soon became (effectively) a separate country, east germany, while the
other occupation zones eventually formed west germany.
*not only did stalin gain control of most of eastern europe, he also
wanted greece and turkey, and supported communist revolutions
there. first the british and then the us sent money to the
governments of those countries to resist the communists. soon
this became known as the truman doctrine—america’s promise to support
any country threatened by communism.
*this was part of the policy of containment, which was proposed and
supported by an american diplomat named george kennan. he
believed that the soviet union could not be fought directly, but that
its ideas should be prevented from spreading.
*not only did truman send aid to countries directly threatened by
communism, but his secretary of state, george marshall also proposed
the marshall plan. from 1948 to 1951, the marshall plan rebuilt
much of western europe, paying over $13 billion (perhaps $100 billion
or more in to-day’s funds). the communist countries were invited
to take advantage of it as well, but the soviet union forbade them,
creating their own version in its place. that version in fact did
little for the conquered nations, and in most cases the russians
actually dismantled german factories and moved them back to russia as a
form of reparations. with this help most of western europe was
more prosperous (or at least had a higher industrial output) than they
were before the war, and local communist parties declined in popularity.
*the soviet union did not want to be contained, however, and planned to
test the limits of the united states. in june, 1948, stalin cut
off the city of berlin from getting outside supplies, even though the
americans, british, and french had soldiers and diplomats in their own
sectors of berlin. they did not back down, however.
*the us air force could still get to berlin, and did so, carrying food
and other supplies, not just to the soldiers there, but to the german
people in the city. when the planes were sometimes unable to
land, they dropped supplies in crates with parachutes. the berlin
land, they dropped supplies in crates with parachutes. the berlin
airlift lasted for almost a year before stalin relented and allowed
road traffic back into west berlin.
*in 1949, 12 countries, mostly in western europe, but also including
the united states and canada, formed the north atlantic treaty
organisation, in which each member agreed to treat an attack on any of
them as an attack on all of them.
*this was important, because in 1949, the soviet union also tested its
first atomic bomb and the communists in china took over the entire
country and renamed it the people’s republic of china (except for
taiwan, which remained the republic of china and was supported by the
united states.)
*in 1955, the soviet union and its satellites formed the warsaw pact, a
military alliance between those countries.