Within a year of the war's end
governing Germany was a muddle.
Cooperation among the four powers
was required to get anything done.
Distrust kept that from happening.
Stalin had his large Red Army
facing off against his former allies,
Britain and the U.S.
Britain, France and Germany all wanted
American troops to remain in Europe as
a counter to the Soviet buildup along
their eastern borders. But U.S. policy
followed George Washington's admonition
to avoid foreign entanglements unless
we were at war. Like 1918 it seemed
the Yanks were headed home.
Czechoslovakia.
It's fledgling democracy crushed by
Communist coup. Forget ballots.
Stalin simply says, I win.
The West takes note.
Italy.
Communists were stunned by their loss
at the polls in 1948. The Czech coup was
a public relations disaster. Also voters
wanted to insure their benefits continued
under the Marshall Plan. Then, too, the CIA
made sure pro-U.S. politicians in Italy had
plenty of campaign cash.
Arthur Vandenberg, Republican Senator
from Michigan, shepherded a resolution
through Congress giving the President power
to form an alliance with Europe despite
the nation being at peace. This was a
necessary precursor to joining what became
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Stalin responded to efforts by the U.S., Britain
and France to create West Germany by
closing all land access to West Berlin. For the
next eleven months an airlift was organized to
keep 2.5 million Berliners stocked with food
and coal for heat. This confrontation
with Moscow was the last straw prior to the
Allies gathering in London to sign their treaty:
NATO - 4 April, 1949.
NATO formalized the division of Europe into
two camps - those looking to the U.S. and
its economic and military resources to protect
their nation's independence from Stalin; the
second, a string of nations bordering Russia
to prevent potential Western aggression against
the burgeoning communist state that was
the Soviet Union.
Fear ruled diplomacy. Leaders of both
East and West blustered about their military
capability, both exaggerating at times, and
both often overreacting to the perceived threat.
Poker players both, continuously raising the
ante on one another.
Meanwhile, seed money from the Marshall Plan
helped make for the economic revival of Western
Europe. Key to this industrial recovery was the
manufacturing powerhouse, Germany. Efforts
to release German energy into doing what
they do best was met with widespread dread,
particularly in France and Russia.
Who could trust these citizens from the Nazi empire?
love
dad
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