Cold War: 1948--The Year of Decession

Figure 1.--This photo was taken in 1948 in F�rstenfeldbruck, Bavaria. An American pilot with the 36th Wing is talking with local children. He is riding/sitting on a Cushman Military Scooter. Very popular especially with the Airborne divisions but also used very often on large bases to get around. Not fully understood at the time was the fact that the Germany people would stake their future with America and the Western Allies. Images like this are testimony to the bonds being formed as it were under the radar. At the same time, newspaper headlines chronicled major events in the Cold War. Th Soviets and Americans made major decesions. Stalin made his move to establish Soviet dimunance of Europe. He seuzed Czechoslovakia, until then still a democratic state. He then moved on Berlin, blockading the city. America made its decision. President Truman in the midst of a contentious election year made his decision to stand firm, support Berlin and prepare a major effort to revive the European economy. What was largely unreported at the time was that a third country was making a major decision--Germany. And it would be the German people that would ultimately decide the Cold war and the future of Europe.

The year 1948 very early in the Cold War would prove to be the year of decision although few people in East or West recognized it to be so. America and the West in the aftermath of World War II were unprepared for another epic struggle. The Soviet Union had been a key ally in the struggle against NAZI Germany. Largely forgotten was the fact that Stalin had begun the War as essentially a NAZI ally. The Soviet Union gained enormous prestige as a result of its role in smashing the NAZI tyranny. In the shocking revelation about the NAZIs, largely unreported were the horrors of Stalinism. Resistance to Communism was weakened by Stalin's growing prestige and the collapse of the European economies as a result of the War. And there was no certainty that American would remain engaged in Europe and not, as after World War I, again withdraw. And there was considerable support in the United State s to do just that. Without America, there was little possibility that the Europeans could resist Stalin with the huge army and substantial Community Party allies in France, Italy, and other European countries. A victorious, but bankrupt Britain was incapable of stopping the Sovietization of Western Europe. And Stalin thought he was on the verge of achieving just that. Unlike the rest, Stalin from the moment he seized power saw himself engaged in a war with the West. And now he thought victory was at hand. He began the year by seizing Czechoslovakia, the country that played the key role in demonstrating the character of Hitler and the NAZI regime (February 1948). Then Stalin moved on Berlin, establishing a blockade (June 1948). Having defeated the Luftwaffe Airlift at Stalingrad, it never crossed his mind that an entire city could be kept alive by air. Changing American thinking about the Soviet Union required a major shift in public opinion. The first Western leader to clea rly enunciate the evolving struggle was former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. President Truman invited Churchill to speak at Independence College in Fulton, Missouri. The American policy throughout the nearly 50 years of the Cold War was once of "Containment". It was first enunciated by George Kennan writing as "X" in a celebrated article on Foreign Affairs. In the Nuclear Age, war between super powers was unthinkable. America sought to contain the expansion of the Soviet Empire while internal forces would weaken Soviet imposed Communist regimes from within. This began with the Berlin Air Lift and the Marshall Plan. But it was not just America which had to decide. Although defeated and occupied, and perhaps not fully understood by either the Soviets or Americans, the German people also had to decide. And it would be Germany, at the heart of Europe that in the end would decide the outcome of the Cold War and future of Europe.

Created: 7:31 PM 3/30/2014
Spell Checked: 12:32 AM 3/31/2014
Last updated: 4:12 PM 8/25/2018