History repeats itself: East-West split

History repeats itself: East-West split

After United States and Soviet Union emerged from world war 11 as the world super powers, differences in political beliefs and polices pulled the two countries apart and led the beginning of the cold war. The western allies-the US, Great Britain and France believed the best way to achieve security was to strengthen democracy and to build prosperous economies in Europe. The soviets however, had well justified fears of invasion and lost more than 20 million people in the World war (ii). Leader Joseph Stalin on the other wanted to establish Pro-Soviet Governments in Eastern Europe not only to prevent any future attacks but also to expand his empire.

President Franklin.S. Roosevelt had believed that post war co-cooperation with Stalin was possible, although he was starting to change his mind shortly before his death in April 1945. His Successor president Harry.S.Truman adopted a much darker view of Stalin. They concluded that the Soviet Dictator wanted to control Eastern Europe with the same Ruthlessness that he used to Govern: USSR.

In Albania and former Yugoslavia, Local Communist parties which had led the resistance against Axis forces in their countries, took control with little help from the Soviets. In Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, where soviet troops were in full command, the Soviet Union made sure that Government ministries included communists. Non-Communists were ousted from the governments, and communists to charge. By 1947, most of the nations of the region had become soviet satellites, controlled by Soviet Union. 

In March 1946, Winston Churchill used the term Iron certain which refused to the soviet-made barrier that split Europe into non-communist Western Europe and communist Eastern Europe, in a speech in Fulton Missouri.

In the spring of 1947, President Truman applied the containment policy-holding back the spread of communism in the Eastern Mediterranean. In Greece, a local communist were fighting guerrilla war against the Pre-Western monarchy. They were aided by the communists from the neighboring former Yugoslavia and Albania. Economic weakness prevented Britain from taking action. In February 1947, Britain informed President Truman of this fact and asked the US to assume British responsibilities in the area. President Truman therefore asked Congress for 400m aid program for support. Congress approved Truman’s aid request-us took on International responsibilities as the leader of the western World. As a result of American assistance, Greece was able to defeat Communist guerrillas and the spread of communism in the Eastern Mediterranean was blocked.

President Truman believed that the Military and Economic security of the United States depended on the strong and democratic Europe-US government devised a new approach to provide aid to Europe. In June 5^th 1947,  Secretary George’s. Marshall proposed a European aid program [Marshall Plan] at Harvard University. For the plan of work, Marshall urged united effort to determine where Europe’s economic needs lay and how the US could help. However USSR refused to participate in the plan and forced its Eastern Europe allies to do the same. The soviets felt they could not afford to give out information about their economy, opposed linking their communist economy with the largely capitalist ones of the Western Europe.

The Marshall plan helped Western European nations to work together to boost productivity, reduced trade barriers and use resources efficiently. They received about 13 Billion in aid from the US during the next 4years. Further, Marshall Plan extended American influence in Western Europe and helped Unite the region into a single Economic group to counter the Soviets. In Response to Marshall plan in 1949, USSR set up arrival plan known as the council for mutual economic assistance [COMECON]- Eastern Europe was thus formed into a competing economic group led by the Soviet Union.

GERMAN FACTOR

France,  the United States and the Soviet Union. The zones of the Western allies included the western part of the German, while the soviet Zone encompassed eastern Germany. The city of Berlin, deep within the soviet zone was also divided into four sectors.    In 1945, German had been divided into four zones, controlled by Great Britain, 

The United States, Great Britain and France decided to include their Zones in the Marshall plan as the means to contain communism while the Soviet stripped their German Zone of its Industrial resources and equipment. The western allies agreed to combine their sectors of Berlin to form what became known as the city of west Berlin. They also planned to form an independent West German State by joining their Zones of Occupation-Soviet tried to block this merger in June 1948 by cutting all land access from the West into West Berlin. The western allied rejected the Idea of using force to regain Access to Berlin-Airlift needed supplies to the isolated city, continued for 11 months. Its success finally forced the Soviets to lift the blockade in May 1949.

In the fall of 1949, Federal republic of Germany or West Germany was proclaimed its capital was at Bonn. The Soviets then setup the German democratic Republic / East German with its capital at East Berlin thus Germany was divided into two separate countries.

Large numbers of East Germans were fleeing to West Berlin, which was accessible to them. In an effort to halt the drain of its work force, the East Germany government with the Soviet backing built concrete wall across the divided city in August 1961. The Berlin Wall stemmed the fall of East Germans fleeing communism and raised East-West tensions. It became the symbol of the cold war and the hostile confrontation between Democracy and communism.

Besides Germany, in February 1948, Czechoslovakia was taken over by communists and incorporated into the soviet alliance System.

In April 1949, shortly before the end of the Berlin blockade, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed by United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, The Netherland, Luxemburg, Portugal, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Canada. It alters expanded to include Greece and Turkey in 1952 and West Germany in1955.

In response to NATO, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe allies signed a military agreement known as the Warsaw pact in 1955 soviet troops stationed in Hungary under the terms of Warsaw pact were used to suppress a 1956 uprising there. In 1968, the Soviet Union approached the treaty to justify its invasion of Czechoslovakia which had introduced a liberal from of communism. The Old war soon turned into a global struggle. In 1949, Soviet successfully exploded their first atomic bomb. Tensions further increased as the two super powers engaged in arms race.

Communism made rapid advances in Asia. In the late 1940s, Communist governments came to power in China and North Korea. In 1950, the North Koreans, allied to the Soviet Union and china attacked South Korea, a Pre-western republic. Although the North Korean were forced back to their territory, The Korean conflict led western fears that in communism, it forced a single, powerful enemy seeking world conquest. Cold war also came to be not only a test of military strength, but also the of the super power competing ideologies or political and economic philosophies democratic capitalism on the part of the United States, and  communism in the part of the Soviet union. Military buildups, space exploration, local and Regional conflicts around the globe became entangled in the cold war as two superpowers sought to win support and to block gains by the other.