What are two messages of this cartoon?

Steps to the Political, Economic and Military Division of Europe Part II

Moving Towards Confrontation and Containment

The Truman Doctrine  Truman speech March 1947: US obligation to support free peoples who are resisting subjugation  Truman Doctrine  Turkey and Greece  Radical change from isolationism  Soviets saw this as evidence the US sought further influence  Truman influenced by Kennan and Iron Curtain speech  Beginning of containment  Would draw US into conflicts well beyond Europe

The Marshall Plan  1947, George Marshall into Sec. of State office  Thought Western Europe needed immediate help  Economic aid in recovering areas  Pattern along the Iron Curtain

Dollar Imperialism  Would the Marshall Plan involved the Soviets?  Strict criteria to qualify for aid  Must be able to investigate financial records of applicant countries  Stated Aims  Revive European working economies for political and social stability  Safeguard the future of the US economy  Initiative must come from Europe  Will become reality in 1948 with the Czech Coup  $17 Billion

Soviet Reaction and Response  Called it American Dollar Imperialism  Trying to establish European empire  Methods of dependence  Response was Molotov Plan  Bilateral agreements aimed to tie economies of Eastern Europe to the USSR  COMECON Council for Mutual Economic Assistance  Stimulate and control their development and support collectivization and heavy industry

Cominform and the Two Camps Doctrine  Two developments with Soviets  Cominform  Communist Information Bureau, 1947  Increase Stalin’s control over Communist parties in other countries  Two Camps Doctrine  Stalin speech, 1946  Two Camps in Europe opposing each other  USSR and Eastern Europe  Also sympathetic nations in the Middle East and Southeast Asia

Red Army Occupation  Controlled Eastern Europe with satellite empire  Tied together and to Moscow with:  Soviet military power  Salami tactics  State police and security/spy networks  COMECON  Soviet control throughout Eastern Europe, other than Czech  Breach of Yalta and Potsdam

Mr. X Article  Kennan article in Time in 1947  Wrote of need for long- term, patient, firm containment of rival Soviet Union  Influence over American public opinion  Containment seemed essential

Czechoslovakian Coup  Czech moving towards the West in 1948  Interest in Marshall Plan  West felt bad for Munich  Stalin organized pressure on non- communists  12 resigned, Czech President Benes agreed to communism  Foreign Minister found dead  Truman calls it a coup  Pushed Marshall plan through Congress  Bloody purges there throughout Eastern Bloc rest of the year  Weakness of Stalin was in Berlin

Berlin Crisis of 1948  Germany under four zones under ACC  One economic unit  By 1949, two separate states

Why Did Unification of Germany Fail?

Germany’s Strategic Position  Geographic, central position and economic potential  USSR did not want a resurgent Germany  Similar to France  Sought reparations  US sought to rebuilt Germany  UK with them  Lack of trust developing

Specific Disputes Inside Germany  Reparations were a problem  Potsdam-USSR was to take industrial equipment from West Germany to provide those zones with food from the East  Didn’t deliver enough, so US stopped supplies  Battle over coal  1947, American and British zones merged into Bizonia

Specific Disputes Inside Germany  Stalin planning on incorporating reunified Germany as early as 1945  Army in East, Communist Party of Germany in other zones  Not successful in the West  Minimal economic assistance and no democracy  Socialists then focused on the East

Specific Disputes Inside Germany  Western powers also thinking about consolidating  London Conference of Ministers, 1947  Meant to reconsider German peace treaty, whoops  London Conference, 1948  France, Britain, U.S. created West German state, new currency  Stalin began a blockade of Berlin

Berlin Blockade  Berlin 100 miles inside Soviet zone  Road, rail, air corridors had been established  Stalin’s transport restrictions  Total blockade in 1948  Routes all closed  Electricity cut from East to West  Allies supplied Berlin through the air  Stalin ends blockade in 1949

Results of Berlin Blockade  Division of Germany  Federal Republic of Germany in West, Sept  German Democratic Republic in East  May have been preferable to the West  Continuation of four-power control in Berlin  Formation of NATO, Apr  Military assistance to Europe  West Germany in 1954  Soviet response is Warsaw Pact

Conclusions  Europe clearly divided  Germany separated into two clear states  US abandoned isolationism  No peace treaty – Central Europe’s borders not formalizes  West unified against the USSR

Implications  All conflicts take capitalism versus communism character  Containment brought US into Asia  UN never played a major role previously envisioned