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After World War II, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
occupied much of Europe. Most of the continent's governments had fallen
to the Nazis during the war, so the two superpowers were left with the
responsibility of setting up new governments. Each promised to allow free
elections, but in the end, did not. This left eastern and western Europe
divided by style of government (eastern was communist, western was not)
and left Germany divided between the two superpowers.
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Eventually, as tensions rose between the
superpowers, the Soviets cut off their area of Germany, and closed access
to West Berlin, which was located deep within the Soviet zone of occupation.
The allies aided the citizens of Berlin with supplies during the Berlin
Airlift of 1948. This was a combined effort between the USA, Britain and
France to keep the city alive. In the end over two million tons of food
and supplies were dropped.
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Soon after, when the Soviets began withdrawing
from other countries around the world, it became evident that they were
not going to go quietly. The USSR demanded oil concessions from Iran in
exchange for withdrawal, but did not get them. In a similar manner, the
Soviet leaders demanded that Turkey allow them to utilize its resources
to spy on the western world. The Soviets also supported a communist revolution
in Greece that led to a bloody civil war. Soon after that, there was a
communist coup in Czechoslovakia, which was not a Soviet initiated venture,
but quickly received full Soviet support. Western European nations countered
this chain of events and the apparent growing Soviet threat with the Brussels
Treaty, which defensively linked Britain, France, and Benelux.
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The expansion of Soviet influence in Eastern
Europe and the threats against Greece and Turkey aroused growing alarm
throughout Western Europe. As a consequence, in April 1949, in accordance
with the United Nations Charter, 12 nations established the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to coordinate the military defenses
of member nations against possible Soviet aggression. Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
Norway, Portugal and the United States (with Greece, Turkey and the Federal
Republic of Germany joining afterward in 1952) agreed to consider an armed
attack against any one of them as an attack against all. The territory
covered included French Algeria, and there were also provisions in the
treaty to protect the "occupation forces in any party of Europe." In December
1950, General Dwight
D. Eisenhower was appointed the Supreme Commander of NATO military
forces with a unified command of 50 combat divisions.
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