WHY DID GERMANY AND
BERLIN BECOME A
FOCUS FOR THE COLD
WAR IN EUROPE?
Background ideas
Cominform
Stalin’s ‘Two Camps’ Doctrine
The ‘Two Camps’ doctrine
Mr. X Article, Time Magazine, 1947
USA must make a long
term, firm commitment
to containment
Russia has
‘expansionist
tendencies’
USA must regard
USSR as a rival, not a
partner
Main ideasThe unused cover for TIME, showing George Kennan
Czechoslovakian Coup, Feb. 1948
Czechoslovakia expressed interest in
receiving Marshall Aid
Intense pressure from the USSR led to the
formation of a communist led government
Jan Masaryk found dead
Czech Coup used by Truman
to get Marshall Plan funding
approved.
Containment
“Stalin fell into the trap the Marshall Plan laid for
him, which was to get him to build the wall that
would divide Europe.”
John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War, 2005
The Berlin Crisis of 1948
By 1949,
Germany was
divided into 2
separate
states.
Disputes over Germany
Reparations
Political Conflict:
Stalin’s plans June 1945: established the SED (Socialist Unity Party)
Bizonia January 1947
London Foreign Ministers Conference 1947: ended in recriminations
London Conferences 1948: Constitution for a new West German government and agreed to introduce a new currency.