The wartime allies fell out quickly. The Soviet Union kept its armies in Eastern Europe and installed communist governments there; in 1946 Winston Churchill said an "iron curtain" had descended across the continent. The United States and the Soviet Union, the two superpowers, entered a long rivalry called the Cold War.
Key idea
The U.S. set out to contain Soviet communism: the Truman Doctrine (1947), the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe (1948), the Berlin Airlift (1948 to 1949) and the NATO alliance (1949).
Why it works
Diplomat George Kennan argued in 1946 and 1947 that the Soviet Union would expand wherever it could, but could be held back by "vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies." When Britain could no longer help Greece and Turkey resist communist pressure, Truman asked Congress for 400 million dollars in aid in March 1947. The Marshall Plan gave about 13 billion dollars to sixteen countries of Western Europe, on the theory that poverty bred communism; the Soviets refused it for themselves and their satellites. When the Soviets blockaded West Berlin in June 1948, the U.S. and Britain flew in food and coal for nearly a year until the blockade was lifted in May 1949. In April 1949, twelve nations formed NATO, pledging that an attack on one is an attack on all. The Soviets answered with their own atomic bomb (1949) and, later, the Warsaw Pact (1955).
Work it through
Worked example: Name the tool
Which containment tool fits each: money to rebuild France and West Germany; a promise of mutual defense; aid to Greece against communist rebels?
- Rebuilding economies so communism would not appeal: the Marshall Plan.
- An attack on one is an attack on all: NATO.
- Aid to a country resisting armed communist pressure: the Truman Doctrine.
Answer: Marshall Plan; NATO; Truman Doctrine.
Common mistake
Many students think the Cold War was a war of U.S. and Soviet armies fighting each other. The two never fought each other directly. They competed through alliances, aid, arms, spying, propaganda, the space race, and wars fought by others or in other lands, such as Korea and Vietnam.