Cold War Origins - 3. The USA's involvement in Europe

• Jan 1947 - The British and US zones in Germany are merged to create Bizonia 
• June 1947 - the Marshall Plan is announced
• Feb 1948 - a new currency is introduced into the Western zones of Germany
• June 1948 - The London Conference recommends a West German Constituent Assembly 
• Strategic planning – planning that is designed to establish some degree of military, political or economic control by pursuing actions and policies which will result in one or more of these outcomes
• Protectorate – a region or state that falls under the influence of another state, whose aim it is to ensure the safety of the state or region 
• Global power – the USA was a superpower by the end of WW2. This implied that its influence was to be measured on a global and therefore, worldwide, scale rather than merely a regional scale. Global power status suggests that the state may intervene effectively anywhere in the world and this sets it above other non-global or regional powers
• The ‘special relationship’ – Churchill emphasised a common identity and a shared need for security between the USA and Britain. There was a lasting assumption that these 2 states would always have this common bond and that it would form the basis of their political, economic, and strategic relationship. This notion was something of a myth that grew in the early years of the Cold War and was frequently shown not to exist in reality as the foundations for Anglo-American relations 
• Dean G. Acheson (1893-1971) – one of the architects of the Marshall Plan and US Secretary of State from 1949-1953. He had a key role in the formulation of American policy towards Europe. He was committed to the concept of containment and to ensuring that the USA’s interests in Europe were guaranteed by making its commitment manageable and effective. He was also committed to stopping the spread of communism on a global scale and regarded Asia as a key element in this aim. Acheson was very influential in the USA’s early Cold War policy. 
• Andrey Vyshinsky (1883-1954) – attended both Yalta and Potsdam and went on to manage the consolidation of communist power in Romania. A British diplomat described him as ‘a cringing toadie only too anxious to obey His Master’s Voice even before it had expressed his wishes’. Essentially, Vyshinsky was a hard line sycophantic Stalinist