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.