Postwar Europe: Recovery, Communism, and Cold War (1945-1970)

Overview

Post-World War II Europe faced far greater destruction than after World War I due to advancements in technology and tactics.
World War I damage was limited to specific regions like Flanders, Poland, parts of Russia, northern Italy, southern Austria, and the Balkans.
World War II mass bombing severely damaged cities across Europe, especially in Germany, and the Soviet Union's scorched-earth policy devastated numerous villages and cities.
Economic systems in both Western and Eastern Europe were crippled by ruined transport, factories, and housing.
Western Europe experienced an economic recovery called "the miracle," reaching prewar productivity within a decade and unprecedented prosperity within two.
The United States provided extensive aid through the Marshall Plan to rebuild both allies and former enemies like Germany and Italy.
By the late 1950s, Western Europe began moving towards economic and political integration.
The U.S.S.R. also achieved a remarkable recovery under Stalin's Five-Year Plans, repairing most war damage within a decade.
The Soviet Union expanded its empire, including most of Eastern Europe as satellites under a repressive Stalinist regime.
After Stalin's death in 1953, new leaders adjusted Soviet Communism but maintained control over the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe.
The emergence of the United States and the U.S.S.R. as superpowers reshaped the balance of power, dividing Europe into Western and Communist blocs.
The West aimed to contain Soviet expansion, while the Communists sought to spread their ideology and defend their gains against capitalism.
The Cold War was characterized by ideological, economic, and military rivalry, heightened by the development of nuclear weapons.
Periods of high tension, threatening war or nuclear conflict, alternated with periods of "peaceful coexistence."

Western European Recovery (1945-1957)

The Western Allies prioritized rebuilding Germany, particularly the Ruhr Basin, due to its industrial importance.
The Soviets initially sought German reparations to aid their own reconstruction, while the Morgenthau Plan aimed to convert Germany into an agricultural society.
The American, British, and French eventually agreed that rebuilding Germany was essential for Western European recovery.
The joint administration of the four occupation zones collapsed, leading to the formation of West Germany (American, British, and French sectors) and East Germany (Russian sector).
Communist agitation in France and Italy strained relations between the democracies and the Soviet Union.
Czech Communists seized power in Prague.
The Marshall Plan, initiated by Secretary of State George Marshall, provided billions of dollars in grants to rebuild housing, transportation, and industry in Western Europe and Germany.
The United States and eleven other nations established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to rearm and protect non-Communist Europe from invasion. West Germany, Greece, and Turkey later joined, and Germany was encouraged to form a national army under NATO command.
Productivity in Marshall Plan recipient countries exceeded prewar levels, prompting the United States to advocate for a European free-trade zone.
The Marshall Plan aimed to contain Communism and open markets for U.S. goods.
The French-sponsored Schuman and Monnet Plan led to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community by Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, Luxembourg, and West Germany to pool resources.
The U.S.S.R. formed the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance with its Eastern European satellites, to counter NATO.
The European Economic Community (Common Market) was established by the same six nations as the European Coal and Steel Community to eliminate internal tariffs and facilitate the free exchange of money and workers. Britain, Ireland, and Denmark joined in 1973.

Communism: The Soviet Union and Its Satellites (1945-1968)

Local Communist parties, supported by the Red Army, seized control in Eastern European coalition governments (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Romania), making them Soviet satellites. East Germany also became a satellite under occupation.
Albania and Yugoslavia, under Communist rule maintained independence because they were not liberated by the Soviet troops.
Communist governments in satellite nations implemented land distribution reforms and nationalized industries. Forced collectivization of agriculture met with limited success.
Soviet-style five-year plans focused on reconstruction and building heavy industry at the expense of consumer goods.
Police state tactics, including domestic spying, arbitrary imprisonment, censorship, and torture, were used to suppress opposition parties and the influence of the Roman Catholic Church.
Repression intensified in the U.S.S.R. during Stalin's final years. His achievements, such as industrialization, victory against the Nazis, post-war reconstruction, and expansion of Soviet influence, were overshadowed by brutal repression.
Stalin's totalitarian regime caused the deaths of over 30 million citizens, denied civil rights, established forced labor camps (Gulags), and suppressed free expression.
After Stalin's death, Lavrenti Beria, head of the secret police, was executed to prevent a coup.
The East Berlin riots signaled growing resistance against Soviet domination in the satellites.
Nikita S. Khrushchev, head of the Soviet Communist Party by 1954, denounced Stalin's crimes in a speech to the Central Committee.
Khrushchev criticized Stalin's "cult of personality," terror, and failures during the initial Nazi invasion in 1941.
De-Stalinization spurred resistance in the satellites, leading to revolts in Poland and Hungary. Poland, under Wladyslaw Gomulka, secured concessions and liberalized its government. The Soviets brutally suppressed armed revolts in Hungary.
The launch of Sputnik demonstrated the Soviet Union's technological advancements. They had tested their first atomic bomb in 1949 and hydrogen bomb in 1953. Captured German scientists aided their rocketry program.
Khrushchev was removed from power. Centralized economic planning (Gosplan) helped reconstruct the U.S.S.R. and raised the Soviet gross national product from 30 percent of the American in 1950 to about 50 percent in the mid 1960s. Agriculture struggled due to collectivized farms, and Khrushchev's policy decisions were resented by party rivals.
In August 1968, Soviet forces intervened to halt the liberalization of Czechoslovakia, a threat to Soviet dominance. The Brezhnev Doctrine asserted the U.S.S.R.'s right to intervene in any satellite nation where Communism was threatened. This intervention undermined Soviet leadership and its role as a Communist model.

Cold War

The Cold War was characterized by economic, cultural, ideological, political, diplomatic, and military struggle between the Western and Communist blocs.
The United States and the U.S.S.R. never directly engaged in military conflict but invested heavily in military strength.
The initial phase involved a struggle for control of war-devastated Europe. U.S. aid supported Western European democracies, while the Red Army established Communist governments in Eastern Europe.
The next phase focused on containing Communism in the Third World through aid and regional alliances. Wars broke out involving European democracies or the United States against Marxist nationalists in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
The nuclear arms race created a "balance of terror," while cracks in alliance systems aggravated the conflict. The United Nations' role expanded as more nations joined, and superpowers recognized the limits of their power.
The Cold War is said to have ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
Communist-agitated strikes in Western Europe and takeovers of governments in Eastern Europe strained relations between the United States and the U.S.S.R. The Truman Doctrine pledged aid to nations threatened by Communist aggression.
The Soviet blockade of Berlin led to the Berlin Airlift.
The European Recovery Plan (Marshall Plan) went into effect, but the Soviets declined to participate and forbade their satellites from participating.
NATO was established along with regional military alliances in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Southwest Pacific.
After nearly two decades of civil war, the Chinese Communists defeated Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists, leading to non-recognition by the United States in the UN.
The Korean War (1950–1953) was a major conflict between the West and the Communists after the Japanese were forced out.
The country was divided at the 38th parallel. The Soviets supported Kim Il Sung in North Korea, while the U.S. supported Syngman Rhee in South Korea. The Soviet Union rejected free elections in Korea.
In June 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea. President Truman, fearing appeasement, got UN approval to intervene militarily.
A U.N. force led by General Douglas MacArthur landed in South Korea and routed the North Koreans, driving them close to the Yalu River.
Chinese troops intervened, driving the U.N. forces back to the 38th parallel.
President Truman removed General MacArthur from command for advocating an attack on China.
A cease-fire ended serious fighting in July 1951; and an armistice, returning the Koreas to the situation before the war, was signed in 1953.
The war convinced the United States that military might could contain Communism despite the losses.
The death of Stalin thawed the Cold War.
The Geneva Summit led to a conciliatory atmosphere.
War in the Middle East renewed tensions between the Soviets and the West.
U.S. and Soviet relations soured further as Fidel Castro was openly aided by Soviet and Chinese Communists in his overthrow of Cuban dictator Batista.
The Paris Summit ended when Khrushchev revealed U.S. spy flights over the U.S.S.R.
The U.S.S.R. became capable of launching direct nuclear attacks against the United States.
The Bay of Pigs invasion was a disaster for President John F. Kennedy.
The Berlin Wall was erected to prevent East Berliners from fleeing to the West.
The first U.S. troops arrived in South Vietnam.
The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
A nuclear test ban treaty was signed by the United States, the U.S.S.R., and Britain. France refused to sign.
A hotline was installed between the Kremlin and the White House.
A rift developed between the Soviets and Chinese Communists.
Communist China became the fifth member of the "nuclear bomb club."
Lyndon Johnson escalated American involvement in the Vietnam conflict.
The U.S. troop did not withdraw from the undeclared war until 1973.
The support that the U.S.S.R. and the Chinese People's Republic (Communist China) gave to the North Vietnamese all through the war was a sore spot in the relations between the Soviets and the United States.
During the administration of U.S. President Richard Nixon, an avowed anti-Communist in his early political career, he and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, pursued a policy of détente, peaceful coexistence between the Western and the Communist blocs. Leaders exchanged visits, and the SALT negotiations (Strategic Arms Limitations Talks) began.
A nonproliferation treaty to limit the spread of nuclear weapons was signed by the United States and the U.S.S.R.
Nixon's dramatic visit to Communist China-followed by scientific and cultural exchanges-resumed relations between the two former enemies.
Détente prevailed in the years that followed. Splits in the ranks of both the Western and Communist blocs had changed relations between the two superpowers, which in the late 1940s and through the 1950s had faced off with the support of allies or satellites. DeGaulle's France had questioned the leadership of the United States in European affairs just as Mao's China had questioned that of the Soviet Union in the Communist world. The suppression of Czechoslovakia had tarnished the Soviet image just as the Vietnam War had the American. A prosperous and independent Western Europe took more and more charge of its own affairs, and nationalist resistance in Eastern Europe diminished Soviet influence.