The Policy of Containment

In August 1947, President Harry Truman announced his plan to limit the growing influence and power of the Soviet Union on Europe. The military weakness of England and France forced the United States to play a larger role in defending the West. In a speech made to the American public, Truman warned of the evils of communism to the United States. Communism was a threat that required the continued efforts of Americans to be sure that it did not spread to the United States.

Part of his policy was to rebuild the western nations of Europe, including even the rearming of western Germany, in the case of a possible war with the USSR. The proposed rearmament of western Germany was not well received by Stalin. He was watching events in the western sectors of Germany very closely.

President Truman had committed the United States to a major role in the future political stage of world affairs. A policy of containment would soon draw America into tense situations in the attempt to block expansion of the USSR and communism.

The Berlin Blockade

In an effort to force Great Britain, France and the United States into accepting his view for the future of Germany, Stalin used the city of Berlin as hostage. On 24 June 1948, the Red Army closed the roads to the city of Berlin for "repairs." This was a serious problem for the western Allies because Berlin was located in the Soviet sector. By cutting off supplies of food and fuel, Stalin hoped to starve the people of West Berlin into submission. Once the western Allies admitted defeat, he would take all of Berlin and prove to the world the weakness the West.

The western Allies responded by using airplanes to bring food and materials to the two and one-half million German citizens living in the western sector of the city. The Berlin airlift became an indication of the skill and determination by the West in order to stop Stalin. Through the summer and winter of 1948, allied cargo and bomber planes, full of supplies, flew over the Soviet roadblock. Planes would land every ninety seconds, twenty-four hours a day at the two major Berlin airports in the western sector. Supplies would be quickly unloaded and the aircraft would return for more food, fuel and other necessities..

The Allies were able to save the city with the yearlong airlift of supplies. Stalin's plan failed and he was forced to back down. On 12 May 1949 the Soviets quietly opened the road to Berlin, but the airlift was continued unit September because of the shortage of food. The western Allies had won the first standoff in what came to be known as the "Cold War." This term was used to describe the hostility between the East and West because the war was "cold," that is no real fighting occurred between the superpowers, directly. The confrontation between the Soviet Union and the Western allies was to dominate world politics for close to fifty years.