Cold War: Superpowers, Blocs, and the Berlin Wall
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The Victorious Powers
The Second World War left a world destroyed. Among the winners emerged two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, which initiated a period of hostility known as the Cold War. For more than four decades, the international stage was marked by continuing tension between the two blocs. This strain had a military dimension, visible in the constant upgrading and renewal of weapons, both conventional and nuclear. It also had a political and economic dimension since the two systems were different. It was an ideological confrontation.
The Formation of Blocs
In the world's political reconstruction, decisions were made in meetings at Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam. The latter two were the most important because they decided the occupation and partition of Germany, its demilitarization, and the prosecution of Nazi leaders. But in these last two conferences, the first differences emerged for the reconstruction of Europe. Mutual distrust and fear stood between the former allies, who had very different interests. The term "Cold War" is used to define the tensions between two antagonistic blocs at the end of the war. The beginning of the Cold War is marked in 1947 when US President Harry S. Truman asked the United States Congress for authorization to help Greece and Turkey, as he believed it necessary to stop Soviet expansion. The Greek race had significant effects on the origins of the Cold War, as the British thought that the Soviets helped the Greek Communists. At the same time, Soviet leaders and ideologists warned about the danger of US expansionism. The Soviet Union was at that time the sole representative of the Communist world. Immediately after the war, the Soviet Union helped to impose communist governments in most countries of Eastern Europe. The first points of friction were Iran and Greece. Iran, a country rich in oil, had been occupied by Soviet and British troops, but the United States forced the Soviet withdrawal. Greece emerged from the war in a situation of civil confrontation.
The Consolidation of a Bipolar World
Marshall Plan Economic Aid
From 1947, the US provided major economic aid, particularly through the Marshall Plan, which had very beneficial effects on European economic reconstruction. The 17 countries benefiting from the Marshall Plan constituted, in 1948, the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). The USSR and its allies responded to the Marshall Plan with the creation of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON).
The Division of Germany
The Berlin blockade was the second conflict that sealed the division of the world into two opposing blocs. Berlin remained within the Soviet zone, 160km from the American zone. In 1948, the gap between the Soviets and the West led them to announce the unification of the three Western zones into a single state, which was radically opposed by the USSR. As a form of pressure, they blocked land communications between western Germany and western Berlin. The blockade lasted almost a year, and this part of Berlin survived thanks to the ongoing airlift by the Americans. The confrontation between East and West became evident when, in 1949, two German states were created: the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in the Soviet zone.
The Militarization of the Blocs
In 1949, the Western bloc founded a military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 1955, the Eastern bloc constituted the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance led by the USSR. In 1961, the communist government of the German Democratic Republic ordered the construction of a cement wall to cross the city from north to south and cut off the two sectors. It was called the Berlin Wall.