4.11 Containment

4.11  Cold War—Beginnings

As the Soviet army liberated eastern European countries from Nazi domination in the last years of World War II, many people in the West (western liberal democracies) became concerned. In one country after another, the Soviets installed governments friendly toward Moscow (capital of the USSR). Although liberated from fascist Nazism, citizens of these countries had little or no voice in the Soviet-influenced governments that ruled them. Those who protested and opposed the communist governments set up by the Soviets were often punished severely.

The United States adamantly opposed all that was communist. At the beginning of World War II, the Americans were in favour of isolationism. After their involvement in World War II, Americans made a commitment to world peace. After the collapse of the Nazi regime, the U.S. intended not to allow another regime produce international problems. The Americans were not going to let the Soviets threaten world peace.

In 1947, U.S. President Truman announced that the Truman Doctrine would be applied in all countries threatened by communism. This doctrine stated that American economic assistance would be given to help rebuild war-torn European countries including any country threatened by or attracted to communism. Truman declared that the American government would provide military and economic aid to any country threatened by communism. This way, the Americans believed they could contain and limit communist expansion.

Also in 1947, the U.S. put forward the Marshall Plan. Under the terms of the Marshall Plan, American economic assistance was offered to all European nations including those under communist control. Stalin saw the Marshall Plan as an anti-communist strategy, an economic extension of the Truman Doctrine. In response to the Marshall Plan, Stalin set up COMECON (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) to provide economic help to Soviet satellites, nations under Soviet influence. As a result, Europe was divided into two distinct spheres of influence: western and eastern Europe. Each was dominated by one of the superpowers.

The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan laid the foundations for America's foreign policy with its commitment to containment, the prevention of the spread of communism. The Soviet Union viewed capitalism as an abusive economic system that exploits the poor. The Soviet leaders did not want the United States within their sphere of influence. Although the US sent economic aid to help Western Europe recover from the war, the Soviets had to rebuild their own country and could not offer the same amount of economic support to Eastern Europe.

The divide was drawn with the West against the East, capitalism versus communism. Each side began to view the other as the aggressor in an ideological conflict.

Read "Containment" (including "The Truman Doctrine" and "The Marshall Plan") on pages 190-191 in your textbook, Understandings of Ideologies. These pages will further your understanding of the concept of ideological conflict with liberalism. You should make notes, either on paper or on your computer, about what you have read. You may want to read the tutorial How to Make Notes. When you are finished the tutorial, return here to continue this unit.

Alliances

After WWII, Germany was divided into an eastern zone controlled by the Soviet Union and a western zone controlled by the United States, Britain, and France. Similarly, the German capital city of Berlin was divided into eastern and western zones. Berlin, however, was located within the overall Soviet zone of occupation in Germany.

In 1948, the U.S., Britain, and France merged their zones hoping to create a new, stronger Germany to counter the Soviet influence in the east. Because the four occupying powers had never exactly defined the conditions by which the western powers could have access to Berlin, the Russians protested the merging of the western zones by blockading all the land routes into Berlin. The western powers were cut off from their zone of occupation in Berlin. The Soviet protest became known as the Berlin Blockade, 1948.

West Berlin was cut from all supplies from the West. The city had only enough food to last six weeks.The Soviets hoped to force the West to withdraw from Berlin. The Americans concluded that if Berlin fell completely to communism, then West Germany would be next; the Americans were determined to hold on to Berlin. The Western powers could have fought their way through, but the Soviets had many troops defending the eastern zone. Instead, the western Allies organized an airlift of supplies to Berlin, and within two months Allied aircraft were arriving in Berlin every three minutes.

The Soviets were powerless to stop these flights. They knew that any attempt to shoot down the Allied aircraft would be considered an act of war. Because the United States had "the bomb" (atomic bomb) and had shown the world that they would use it (twice, on Japan in 1945), the Americans had a military advantage over the Soviets. In May 1949, realizing that their strategy was not working, the Soviets called off the blockade. It was now clear to the West that Berlin and Germany would remain divided and that the Soviet Union, once an ally in WWII, was now an enemy whose ability to spread communism had to be contained.

The events in Europe between 1945 and 1949 convinced the Western Allies that the goal of the Soviet Union was to gain control eventually of all western Europe. To prevent this, they established a defensive alliance in April 1949 called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO. The Western Allies established NATO because they saw the massive military forces of the Soviet Union as a serious threat to the balance of power in Europe.

Western Europeans were glad at this time to take refuge behind the NATO alliance system, backed as it was by American economic and military power. Encouraged by its NATO success, the US moved to involve itself in a series of alliances that encircled the communist world in an attempt to keep it from the spreading of a policy of containment.

From the perspective of the Soviets, the balance of power favored NATO. The Americans had nuclear capability that the Soviets did not yet possess, but the Soviets were working on it. In September 1949, the Soviets successfully detonated their first nuclear weapon, and with the signing of the Warsaw Pact in 1955, the balance of power was re-established in Europe. The Warsaw Pact alliance included those nations located within the Soviet sphere of influence.

Berlin wall and graffiti This view is from the west where it was accepted to put art and writing on the wall. On the other side was East Berlin where such was not allowed-one could be arrested. © 2009 Jupiterimages Corporation   After the Berlin Blockade, West Germany (and West Berlin) began to develop economically and became very wealthy. As the Soviets had feared, the new West Germany became an economic power. Many people in East Germany (and East Berlin), attracted by this prosperity, tried to escape their relative poverty. To stop them, in 1961, the communists built a wall of barbed wire and concrete through the city of Berlin. The Berlin Wall divided the city into two separate sections and made escape more difficult. East German guards were given orders to shoot on sight anyone trying to escape to the West. Many East Berliners tried to cross the wall to freedom. Some were successful; some were killed. The Berlin Wall came to symbolize the ideological differences between the liberal democratic West and communist East.   Guard tower on the Berlin Wall with armed guards © 2009 Jupiterimages Corporation

Read "Alliances: NATO and the Warsaw Pact" on pages 191-194 in your textbook, Understandings of Ideologies. These pages will further your understanding of the concept of ideological conflict with liberalism. You should make notes, either on paper or on your computer, about what you have read. You may want to read the tutorial How to Make Notes. When you are finished the tutorial, return here to continue this unit.