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Who was to blame for the Cold War?
at Potsdam the successful testing of the atomic bomb; he didn’t declare his intentions to use it on Japan. Truman didn’t want the soviets to help fight Japan because it would mean that they would take more land for their communist power. Britain also secured their influence over Greece; Greece was vital as it gave access routes to India and other British Commonwealth countries.
There were now a large number of countries communist and allied with the USSR. The Western powers were afraid it was an advance of communism to take over the whole of Europe. In March 1946 Churchill gave a speech and spoke of an “iron curtain” that had descended upon Europe. Churchill believed that all these new communist countries were really under the influence of Stalin. This was largely true; Stalin set up a process called Cominform to co-ordinate the countries of Eastern Europe. He also communicated with the strong communist parties in France and Italy.
After the war much of Europe had been devastated by war and countries economy’s had fallen apart by the cost of the fighting. The west had accepted Stalin’s “buffer zone” but was determined not to let communism spread any further. This was called containment. Communist guerrilla rebels were attacking Greece and Britain, needing Greece for supply routes across to India asked the USA to supply troops to fight the rebels. Truman being very anti-communist agreed and rescued Greece from Communist takeover. In 1947 Truman made a speech saying that America should be there to support the free peoples of Europe from the threat of Communism (or called outside pressures) this new policy was called the Truman Doctrine.
In correspondence with the new Doctrine the Marshall plan was developed. The Marshall plan involved giving huge loans to European countries to help them rebuild cities and get their Economies going again. This could allow the USA to make profits from newly established trade in Europe. The plan worked very well and 13 billion dollars was pumped into Western Europe. Stalin refused aid to the Eastern European countries accusing the USA of trying to bribe countries away from communism. Stalin fought back in 1948 by closing the supply routes into West Berlin. Stalin didn’t want Western, capitalist influence in his part of Germany. West Berlin was now stranded, with little food. Power and fuel was cut off and Soviet troops surrounded West Berlin. A new German currency, the Deutschmark had been introduced into Western Berlin. Now Stalin introduced the Rouble, the Russian currency into East Berlin.
The Western powers needed to get food to the People of West Berlin. General Clay suggested running an armed convey down one of the supply routes and using force, if necessary, to get to West Berlin. Truman rejected the idea as it could spark off a war. It was known that the Russians had more troops than the Western Powers and a strong foothold in East Germany. The Russian army would crush any attack. They finally decided to supply West Berlin by [next page]