The post-WWII years of reconstruction in Europe, conceived and executed as the Grand Alliance crumbled, was not inevitable. By 1947, Germans were slowly starving as they struggled to rebuild; meanwhile, Soviets lurked in the East, promoting Communism as a better model and coercing eastern European countries into their sphere.
The competition for Germany’s destiny was only one point of contention between the United States and Soviet Union from 1945 to 1949. American policymakers viewed the threats posed by Soviet expansionism and Mao Zedong’s rise to power in China with alarm. The unprecedented terror of atomic weapons, coupled with a series of diplomatic breakdowns between Soviet and American leaders in the 1940s shaped the decades to come.
Historian Robert McMahon explains, “In brief, it was the divergent aspirations, needs, histories, governing institutions, and ideologies of the United States and the Soviet Union that turned unavoidable tensions into the epic four-decade confrontation that we call the Cold War” (McMahon 5). While many citizens put WWII behind them, turned to their families and jobs, and accepted the coercive patriotism of the period without complaint, some observers at home and abroad raised concerns.
The competition for Germany’s destiny was only one point of contention between the United States and Soviet Union from 1945 to 1949. American policymakers viewed the threats posed by Soviet expansionism and Mao Zedong’s rise to power in China with alarm. The unprecedented terror of atomic weapons, coupled with a series of diplomatic breakdowns between Soviet and American leaders in the 1940s shaped the decades to come.
Historian Robert McMahon explains, “In brief, it was the divergent aspirations, needs, histories, governing institutions, and ideologies of the United States and the Soviet Union that turned unavoidable tensions into the epic four-decade confrontation that we call the Cold War” (McMahon 5). While many citizens put WWII behind them, turned to their families and jobs, and accepted the coercive patriotism of the period without complaint, some observers at home and abroad raised concerns.