308 ChaPter^6
begun in 1948] were expected to use it to purchase good back from the U.S.
and thus help rebuild American industrial and financial institutions. Only
countries with private economies, not state-based economies that were
Socialist or even nationalist, were brought in to the Marshall Plan, and it
became a way for the Americans to provide dollars to those countries to use
to buy goods from U.S. businesses, which both helped the economy grow and
helped contain the Soviet Union, which clearly could not match American
economic power.BeRlin, econoMic poweR, and cold waR successThe U.S., as we have seen, had substantial power in the early Cold War years.
Despite the fear of Communism promoted by U.S. leaders, the Soviet Union
could not rival the U.S. in military or economic power, and, outside of its
control of Eastern Europe, did not seek conquest elsewhere [Stalin, for
instance, did nothing to help the rebels in Greece]. By 1948, the American
position in Europe was secure as its influence in Germany had grown; it had
a monopoly on atomic weapons through 1948, with 110 to zero; in 1949 it
was 235 to 1; in 1950, 369 to 5; and by 1954, it would be 2054 to 150.
Economically, the U.S. controlled about half the world’s trade and, through
loans, military assistance, and programs like the Marshall Plan and institutions
like the IMF, was the world’s creditor, putting billions of dollars into foreign
hands so they could buy American products. Even after demobilizing, the
Soviet army still had about 3 million forces in Europe in 1948, but the num-
ber and capabilities of their weapons systems lagged far behind that of the
U.S. and its allies. Stalin thus understood he was playing with a very weak
hand.
Perhaps that is what drove him, in June 1948, to ante up and create the
Berlin Crisis. Though Berlin was entirely in the eastern, Soviet zone, it was
divided in half too because it had been the German capital. The U.S. con-
trolled western Berlin and the Russians had influence in the eastern half. Free
passage through East Germany into Berlin was guaranteed but Stalin, upset by
America’s growing power in Germany, including coordinating coal production
and establishing a common currency, closed off all traffic into the city. While
hawks in the U.S. called for military action, President Truman launched an
around-the-clock airlift to drop supplies into West Berlin. Dubbed “Operation