Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and Berlin Airlift

In February 1947 Great Britain informed the United States it could no longer provide aid to the eastern Mediterranean countries of Greece and Turkey. The United States had been monitoring the economic and political conditions in both countries as there was concern they would fall under Soviet influence. World War II had left the Soviet Union in a severely weakened state. The country had suffered many civilian casualties, was depleted militarily, and feared the rise of yet another militaristic Germany. Thus, as a way to reassert its dominance after the war, the Soviet Union followed an aggressive policy to expand communism, particularly in Eastern Europe.

On March 12, 1947, following a series of meetings with congressional representatives and State Department officials, President Harry S. Truman addressed a joint session of Congress and made an unprecedented request. He asked Congress to authorize $400 million for military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey. Truman said the United States must "support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures." The principles Truman outlined became known as the Truman Doctrine. This foreign policy stated the United States would oppose Soviet aggression by aiding those free countries resisting communist control. The Truman Doctrine led to the Marshall Plan, a plan to rebuild the economies of war-torn Europe. The Truman Doctrine established an American foreign policy that relied on economic assistance. This became America's foreign policy for decades.

Truman's speech was based on the circumstances in Turkey and Greece. But since 1946 it had become clear to Truman that it was not possible for the United States, a democracy, to have a lasting and peaceful postwar relationship with the Soviet Union, a totalitarian regime. The Soviet Union was trying to extend communism into European countries devastated by the war. Eastern European countries were becoming increasingly controlled by the Soviet Union. Truman argued the United States had to take action against the spread of totalitarian regimes because these regimes, he said, "undermine the foundations of international peace and hence the security of the United States." The Truman Doctrine committed the United States to assist free nations struggling against communism. This was a major change in American foreign policy. Until the Truman Doctrine, the United States did not have a tradition of intervening in European and Asian struggles. But the end of World War II brought immense changes to international relationships and alliances.

As the Soviet Union's cooperation with its western allies greatly diminished, it became increasingly difficult for the Allied Control Council to effectively administer occupied Germany. A wide division between the Soviet Union and the western allies was evolving. The Berlin airlift in 1948 was the first international crisis of this division. The divided city of Berlin was the battleground of the crisis that was, in effect, developing into a cold war. Located within the Soviet zone, each of the three western Allied powers—Great Britain, France, and the United States—controlled a sector in western Berlin, while the Soviets controlled the city's eastern sector.

Berlin had been bombed into rubble during the war. Immediately after the war, food and supplies were regularly supplied to Berliners through road, rail, and waterway routes from the Allied western zones. However, this arrangement quickly changed. In early 1948 the western Allied powers united their occupied zones for administrative purposes into an area called Trizonia. The Soviet Union in response withdrew from the Allied Control Council. In early June 1948 the western Allied powers established a single West German currency. Stalin objected to the unified currency and its circulation in western Berlin by refusing to accept it. In retaliation, on June 24, he established a blockade, the isolation of an enemy area to prevent passage of people or supplies. Stalin closed all rail, road, and water routes between western Germany and Berlin. He also announced the cessation of the administration of Berlin by the four powers, claiming the western Allies no longer had any rights in their Berlin sectors. In response, on June 26, 1948, the United States and Great Britain began the Berlin Airlift, known as Operation Vittles, to provide food, fuel, and other necessary supplies to Berliners. The Soviets lifted the blockade on May 12, 1949, but Operation Vittles continued until September 30, 1949. The Soviets ended the blockade because of the counterblockade the western Allies imposed against Soviet-controlled eastern Germany. Operation Vittles became a symbol of the U.S. commitment to oppose Soviet expansion. It also solidified the division of Europe between the Soviet Union and the Western powers. Up to this point, the division between East and West Germany had remained one based on politics and a display of military might. In 1961, however, a wall was erected to prevent residents of East Berlin from escaping into West Berlin. The "Berlin Wall," as it came to be known, now had a physical barrier that further reinforced the division between East and West.