Cold War Balance of Power

After World War II:
- West Germany and Japan developed democratic governments.
- The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as superpowers with differing political and economic systems.
- The Cold War developed, and the superpowers confronted one another throughout the world.
- The United Nations tried to maintain peace.

Section Overview

After World War II, Japan and West Germany adopted constitutions that built democratic governments.
Two major powers emerged from the war: the United States and the Soviet Union.
Political and economic differences between the two led to a division of Europe that would last more than 40 years.
The conflict between democracy and communism also spread around the globe, resulting in a buildup of arms as well as a race to explore space.
The United Nations experienced both failure and success in its quest to maintain peace in the years after 1945.

Key Themes and Concepts

Change: What impact did World War II have on the development of democracy in Germany and Japan?
Political Systems: How did differing political systems help cause the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union?
Conflict: How did the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union involve other nations around the world?
Justice and Human Rights: What role does the United Nations play in the struggle for justice and human rights?

Key People and Terms

iron curtain
asylum
superpowers
Cold War
satellites
Truman Doctrine
containment
Marshall Plan
NATO
Warsaw Pact
surrogate
Fidel Castro
Cuban Missile Crisis
nonaligned nations
After World War II, with help from the United States and Great Britain, democracy and free enterprise were restored to the nations of Western Europe.
Eastern Europe, however, was occupied by armies of the Soviet Union.
Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, wanted to spread communism throughout the area.
He hoped to create a buffer zone of friendly governments to prevent possible attacks from Germany and other Western nations.
Although Stalin had promised free elections for Eastern Europe, he instead supported the establishment of procommunist governments throughout the region.
Soon Europe was divided by an imaginary line known as the iron curtain.
In the East were the Soviet-dominated communist countries.
In the West were the Western democracies, led by the United States.

Germany and Japan Transformed

Both Germany and Japan had been physically and socially devastated by the war.
The victorious Allied powers occupied the two countries.
Germany was divided into four zones of occupation.
Great Britain, France, and the United States occupied the three zones in western Germany.
The Soviet Union controlled eastern Germany.
The United States alone occupied Japan.

Democracy in West Germany

Germany's armed forces were disbanded, and the Nazi party was outlawed.
Nazi war criminals were tried in the Nuremberg trials, and some were executed.
In western Germany, the Allies helped set up political parties.
Germans wrote a federal constitution.
This constitution set up a democratic government and was approved in 1949.
In that year, West Germany also regained self-government as the Federal Republic of Germany.
Germany's constitution included an article that guaranteed political asylum for people who were persecuted for political reasons.
Asylum is protection from arrest or from the possibility of being returned to a dangerous political situation.
For many years, Germany's asylum policy was the most liberal in Europe.
Germany's recognition of its role in the persecution of Jews and other groups probably led to this constitutional guarantee.
In the late 1990s, Germany began to restrict this right after large numbers of asylum seekers came to Germany for economic rather than political reasons.
Germany was deeply shaken by the experience of the Holocaust.
Germans wanted to be sure that such a thing could not happen again.
Today, Germany's relationship with the nation of Israel is very friendly.
Germany and Israel have strong diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties.
There has also been an attempt to financially compensate some of the victims of the Holocaust.

Democracy in Japan

Like Germany, Japan was occupied after World War II by Allied troops, most of whom were American.
Japan's armed forces were disbanded.
Trials were held to punish people who had been responsible for wartime atrocities, and some of these people were executed.
General Douglas MacArthur was the supreme commander of the American military government that ruled postwar Japan.
The American government wanted to end militarism and ensure democratic government in Japan.

Japan's New Constitution

In Germany, a German council had written the new constitution.
Japan's constitution, on the other hand, was drafted by MacArthur and his advisors.
- It created a constitutional monarchy that limited the power of the emperor.
- It promised that Japan would not use war as a political weapon.
- It set up a democratic government.
- Representatives were elected to the Diet, the Japanese parliament.
- Women gained the right to vote.
Basic rights, such as freedom of the press and of assembly, were guaranteed.
The Japanese government accepted this new constitution and signed a treaty that took away Japan's overseas empire.
In 1952, the Allied occupation officially ended.

Two Superpowers

After World War II, several powerful nations of the past were in decline.
Germany was defeated and divided.
France and Britain were economically drained and needed to concentrate on rebuilding.
The United States and the Soviet Union emerged from World War II as the two world superpowers.
The word superpower has been used to describe each of the rivals that came to dominate global politics in the period after World War II.
Many other states in the world came under the domination or influence of these powers.
The United States and the Soviet Union had cooperated to win World War II.
Soon, however, conflicts in ways of thinking and mutual distrust led to the Cold War-a continuing state of tension and hostility between the superpowers.
This tension was a result of differences in political and economic thinking between the democratic, capitalistic United States and the communist Soviet Union.
It was a "cold" war because armed battle between the superpowers did not occur.
The Western powers feared the spread of communism.
Stalin had forced procommunist governments in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and elsewhere.
These countries came to be known as satellites of the Soviet Union.
When Stalin began to put pressure on Greece and Turkey, the United States took action.

The Truman Doctrine

In March of 1947, President Harry S. Truman established a policy known as the Truman Doctrine.
This was an economic and military program designed to help other nations resist Soviet aggression.
It was based on the theory of containment, which involved limiting communism to areas already under Soviet control.
The United States pledged to resist Soviet expansion anywhere in the world.
Truman sent military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey so that they could resist the threat of communism.

The Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan, also proposed in 1947, was a massive economic aid package designed to strengthen democratic governments and lessen the appeal of communism.
Billions of American dollars helped Western European countries recover from World War II.
Although the United States also offered this aid to Eastern Europe, Stalin forbade these countries to accept it.
The division of Germany into four zones after World War II was supposed to be temporary.
Soon Great Britain, France, and the United States had combined their democratically ruled zones.
Tension grew between democratic western Germany and Soviet-controlled eastern Germany.
Germany became a major focus of Cold War tension.
The Allies were trying to rebuild the German economy, but Stalin feared a strong, united Germany.
Berlin, the divided capital, was located in East Germany.

The Berlin Airlift

In 1948, Stalin hoped to force the Allies out of Berlin by closing all land routes for bringing essential supplies to West Berlin.
In response to the crisis, the Western powers mounted a successful airlift.
For almost a year, food and supplies were flown into West Berlin.
Finally, the Soviets ended the blockade.

A Divided Germany

This incident, however, led to the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) in 1949.
Germany, like the rest of Europe, remained divided.
In 1961, the East German government built a wall that separated East Berlin from West Berlin.
East German soldiers shot anyone who tried to escape from East Germany.

Opposing Military Alliances

The NATO Alliance

After the Berlin airlift and the division of West Germany from East Germany, Western European countries formed a military alliance.
It was called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO.
Members of NATO pledged to support each other if any member nation was ever attacked.

The Warsaw Pact

In 1955, the Soviet Union formed the Warsaw Pact.
It included the Soviet Union and seven of its satellites in Eastern Europe.
This was also a defensive alliance, promising mutual military cooperation.
The Soviet Union kept a tight grip on its Eastern European satellites.
Tensions arose in both East Germany and Poland in the 1950s.
In East Germany, a revolt was put down with Soviet tanks.
In Poland, some reforms were made, yet the country remained under the domination of the Soviet Union.
Though Stalin died in 1953, his successors continued his policy of repression.

The Hungarian Revolt

In 1956, a revolution began in Hungary.
It was led by Imre Nagy, who was a Hungarian nationalist and communist.
Nagy ended one-party rule, got rid of Soviet troops, and withdrew Hungary from the Warsaw Pact.
In response, the Soviet Union quickly sent in troops and tanks.
Thousands of Hungarians died, and the revolt against Soviet domination was suppressed.