In response to the spread of Soviet control in Eastern Europe, the USA stepped up its involvement in Europe, and the Soviet Union was determined to defend itself against any threats from the West.
Countries like Poland, Romania and Bulgaria had already had communist governments forced on them and Truman feared this could happen in other countries too.
In a speech in 1947, US President Truman set out why the USA should get involved, stating that countries faced a choice between either capitalism or communism, and that communism was bad because it meant people could not be free.
Communism appealed most to people with nothing to lose, so the Marshall Plan hoped to stop communism by giving people a stake in the capitalist system.
Cominform stood for the Communist Information Bureau, organising all the communist parties in Europe and arranging their leadership so they would do what Moscow told them to.
Comecon stood for the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, an alternative to the Marshall Plan, building up trade links between Comecon countries and preventing Comecon countries signing up to the Marshall Plan.
The Truman Doctrine stated that countries faced a choice between capitalism or communism, and that communism was bad because it meant people could not be free.
Communism appealed most to people with nothing to lose, so the Marshall Plan hoped to stop communism by giving people a stake in the capitalist system.
The Allies were unable to agree about Germany’s future after World War II, leading to a short-term solution, agreed at Potsdam in July 1945, to divide the country and its capital, Berlin, into zones of military occupation.
The significance of NATO showed that, after the Berlin Blockade and the Soviet Union’s own development of the atomic bomb, neither the United States nor Western European governments were prepared to accept future Soviet aggression.
West Berlin couldn’t last for many days without supplies, and it looked like the Western powers would have to pull out of Berlin, which would undermine the USA’s image.