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Early Crises of the Cold War
The Berlin Crisis, the “Twin Shocks,”
and spread of the Cold War to Asia
Soviet-American clash over
organization of Germany
• Anglo-American decision to facilitate economic
recovery of Germany:
- treatment of Germany as a single entity.
- fusion of British, French and American zones of
occupation into one economic unit.
• Soviet insistence on exaction of reparations.
• Struggle to win over German public opinion:
-Byrnes’s proposal for demilitarization of Germany.
- Soviet populist measures in the zone of occupation.
• Failure of the session of the Council of Foreign
Ministers in March of 1947.
West German State and the Berlin
Blockade, 1948-1949
• Currency reform in the Western zones of
Germany and Berlin, June of 1948.
• Plans for convocation of a constitutional
assembly.
• Imposition of Soviet blockade on Western
access to West Berlin to attempt to slow down
emergence of the West German state.
• American Airlift, June 1948-May 1949
Berlin Airlift, June 1948- May 1949
Formation of NATO, 1949
• Proclamation of the Federal Republic of Germany,
May 1949
• Treaty of Brussels, 1948: military alliance of Great
Britain, France, and Benelux countries over
growing fears of war
• Introduction of American forces and nuclear
capabilities to Europe
-NSC-30: American reliance on nuclear weapons
against Soviet conventional forces
• Formation of NATO, April of 1949: mutual
defense guarantees, integrated military structure
Dean Acheson, Secretary of State
1949-1953
The Twin Shocks of 1949: the Soviet
Atom Bomb
• Soviet atomic project received high priority in
1945.
• Public relations campaign for control of atomic
energy:
- The Baruch Plan
• Prior reliance on a conventional strike group of
armies to counter the danger of American
nuclear strike.
• Secret Soviet nuclear test: August of 1949;
elimination of American monopoly on atomic
bombs.
The Twin Shocks of 1949: Chinese
Communist Revolution
• Two decades of civil war between communists
and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists.
• American diplomatic and financial support for
nationalists, but no military involvement
• Little Soviet aid to Mao Zedong; Soviet preference
for weak and divided China
• Stalin’s agreement with Chiang Kai-shek: SinoSoviet treaty of friendship (1945) in exchange for
recognition of Soviet gains in China at Japanese
expense
Chiang Kai-shek, Nationalist leader of
China
The Twin Shocks of 1949: Chinese
Communist Revolution (cont.)
• Some American diplomats discounted
importance of China; expectation of SinoSoviet tensions
• Chinese policy of “leaning to one side:”
ideological commitment to the Soviet Union
and hostility toward the Western powers
-Sino-Soviet treaty of friendship and alliance,
1950
Sino-Soviet Treaty of Alliance, 1950
Paul Nitze, author of NSC-68
NSC-68 and Revision of Containment
• NSC-68 premises about Soviet foreign policy:
-Soviet challenge is ideological and military, not
strictly political
-communist camp is ideologically united and
irrevocably hostile to American interests and way
of life
-Soviet policies must be judged by Soviet
capabilities, not psychological analysis
-commitment to expansion, world revolution and
subversion
NSC-68 and Revision of Containment
(cont.)
• NSC-68 policy recommendations:
-adoption of symmetrical containment
-expansion of American armed forces, nuclear
arsenal, and increase in defense budget
-avoidance of all-out nuclear war with the
Soviet Union, but:
-fighting of limited regional/proxy wars even
with nuclear weapons and push back
aggressively
Conclusion
• Crises of 1948-1949 made the Cold War
global.
• The United States and the Soviet Union began
shifting from political competition to
ideological militarized confrontation.
• The conflict still remained “cold,” but there
was much uncertainty over how it would
develop further.