Berlin Blockade and NATO

• Results of the Berlin Blockade:

  • Cold War worsened
  • East and West Germany formed
  • NATO and the Warsaw Pact
  • Arms Race
• Development of NATO:

  • Marshall Plan was great success
  • Berlin Blockade scared the British → engaged in open talks with the US 10 days after
  • TD and MP were clear signs that America had no intention to returning to isolationism
• NATO:

  • NATO members: US, Canada, UK, France, Belgium, Netherland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Portugal
  • 1949 - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation formed
  • 1950 - output of West European countries increased by 25%
  • 1952 - Greece and Turkey joined
  • 1955 - West Germany joined
  • all members of NATO agreed to go to war if either was attacked and to protect them
  • permanent presence for US army in Europe
  • seen as act of war by Stalin → prioritised his own nuclear deterrent against the West (Soviet Atomic Bomb 1950)
• “The North Atlantic Treaty is not about self-defence of states. These states are not threatened by anyone and no one intends to attack them. On the contrary, the Treaty has an aggressive characteristic and is aimed against the USSR.” - Soviet protest against NATO
• Reaction of the USSR:

  • Stalin responded to Truman Doctrine by strengthening his hold on Eastern Europe and driving non-communists from office
  • COMINFORM set up yo help all European communisy parties to work together (Czechoslavakia refused due to interest in Marshall Aid)
  • 1953 - Stalin’s death → ‘thaw’ in the Cold War
  • 1955 - Warsaw Pact formed after Western Germany joined NATO
• Warsaw Pact:

  • set up in 1955
  • defensive military alliance of USSR and its satellite states in Eastern Europe
  • intended as a counterforce to NATO
  • relied on collective security - if one nation was attacked, the others would come to its support
  • helped make Eastern Europe an effective ‘buffer zone’ for the USSR against the West