264 ENDGAME AND AFTERMATH 1945–1955
▷ The Berlin airlift
A plane delivers supplies
to blockaded West Berlin
in 1949. At the peak of the
airlift, aircraft landed at Berlin’s
Tempelhof airport at a rate
of one per minute.1945 Poland gains
control of German
lands east of the
Oder–Neisse Line.May 14, 1955 The
Warsaw Pact pledges
the USSR and its fellow
Communist states to
mutual cooperation
and defense.1948 Yugoslavia’s
Marshal Tito resents
Soviet interference
and breaks relations
with Stalin.1946–49 Civil War;
British- and American-
backed government
forces fight and defeat
the Greek Communist
Party’s army.Feb 1948 Czechoslovakia
falls to Communism; the
“iron curtain” is complete.1945 Vienna
is split into
four occupation
zones, plus one
joint zone.1945 Territory gained in
East Prussia and the Baltic
makes the USSR and
Poland a formidable bloc.1948–52 Britain receives the
largest portion of aid from
the Marshall Plan, around 26
percent of the total.NATO AND THE WARSAW PACT
APRIL 4, 1949–MAY 14, 1955
The Berlin crisis and the understanding that the
USSR was most likely developing an atomic bomb
prompted the Western European and American
powers to sign a mutual defense pact—the North
Atlantic Treaty—in April 1949. They also placed
their defense forces under a joint NATO Command
Organization. When West Germany joined NATO
in May 1955, the USSR and its satellites signed their
own defense treaty, the Warsaw Pact.5
Founder-members of NATO,
1949 (with Canada and the US)Signatories of the Warsaw Pact, 1955THE BERLIN BLOCKADE AND AIRLIFT
JUNE 24, 1948–MAY 12, 1949
In 1948, the Western powers sparked the first
major crisis in the Cold War when they introduced
a new currency and ended rationing in their zones
in Berlin as a prelude to creating a self-governing
West Germany. The Soviets blockaded the city,
hoping to starve the West out. Instead, over the
next ten months, the Western Allies flew in large
amounts of supplies to their sector. On May 12,
1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade.4
Berlin blockadeNorthSeaBalticSeaM
e
d
it
e
rr
an
ea
n
Se
aA
T
L
A
N
T
ICO
C
E
A
NB
la
ck
Sea
ESTONIALATVIALITHUANIAEAST
PRUSSIAALBANIABULGARIAROMANIAYUGOSLAVIACZECHOSLOVAKIADENMARKFRANCE
SPAIN
TUNISIAGREECETURKEYSWITZERLANDHUNGARYICELANDUNITED
KINGDOM
BELGIUMEAST GERMANYNETHERLANDSPORTUGALITALY
W E S T G E R M A N
Y
U
S
S
RS
W
E
D
E
N
N
O
R
W
A
Y F
IN
L
A
N
D
WarsawKaliningradHelsinki
PorkkalaLeipzigBerlinBremenParisMunichViennaPragueBudapestBucharestSofiaBelgradeRomeTriesteLondonBonnSAARAthensYaltaPotsdamMoscowMinskVologdaKurskDodecanese Is.
(Greece)Malta
(Britain)Corsica
(France)Sardinia
(Italy)Crete
(Greece)1947194719481945194619471946AUST
R
IA
PO
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