US Relations with Europe
What specific policies did the United States take to attempt to contain communism in the late 1940s?
In 1948 and 1949, the U.S. agreed to partition Germany into two nations, allowing the USSR to maintain control over East Germany, while West Germany would become an independent nation.
In 1948, the USSR attempted to blockade West Berlin, preventing food and other supplies from reaching the city. The U.S. and its allies responded by airlifting supplies to the city for nearly a year, until the USSR ended its blockade. The former German capital, Berlin, was also permanently divided with the USSR controlling East Berlin while the U.S., Great Britain, and France oversaw West Berlin. The divide between the two Germanies, and between East and West Berlin, became one of the key symbols and boundaries of the Cold War, especially after the USSR ordered construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
In 1949, the U.S. oversaw the formation of NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), a military alliance between the U.S. and the nations of Western Europe, including West Germany. In response, the USSR formed an alliance with the nations of Eastern Europe, known as the Warsaw Pact in 1955.