Confrontation in Europe: containment, Berlin and the alliances
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Question
What was containment?
Answer
The US strategy of stopping communism spreading further (not rolling it back), delivered mainly through the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan.
Question
What was the Truman Doctrine (1947)?
Answer
The US commitment to support free peoples resisting takeover; it gave ~$400m aid to Greece and Turkey and framed the world as free vs totalitarian.
Question
What was the Marshall Plan (1947–48)?
Answer
The European Recovery Program: ~$13bn of US economic aid to rebuild Western Europe so poverty would not feed communism.
Question
What was Cominform (1947)?
Answer
The Communist Information Bureau — a Soviet body to coordinate and discipline communist parties across Europe and keep them loyal to Moscow.
Question
What was Comecon (1949)?
Answer
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance — the Soviet economic bloc linking the USSR and Eastern Europe, answering the Marshall Plan.
Question
What triggered the Berlin Blockade?
Answer
The Western merger of zones (Bizonia) and the new Deutschmark currency in June 1948, which signalled a rebuilt, capitalist West Germany.
Question
What was the Berlin Blockade (1948–49)?
Answer
Stalin cut off all road, rail and canal routes into West Berlin to force the Western powers out; it lasted from June 1948 to May 1949.
Question
What was the Berlin Airlift?
Answer
The Western operation supplying West Berlin entirely by air for ~11 months until Stalin lifted the blockade in May 1949.
Question
What was NATO (1949)?
Answer
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization — a Western defensive alliance where an attack on one member is an attack on all.
Question
What was the Warsaw Pact (1955)?
Answer
The Soviet military alliance of the USSR and its Eastern European satellites, created in response to West Germany rearming and joining NATO.
Question
Which two German states were created in 1949?
Answer
The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG / West Germany) from the Western zones, and the German Democratic Republic (GDR / East Germany) from the Soviet zone.
Question
Compare the Western and Soviet blocs' key institutions.
Answer
Economic: Marshall Plan vs Comecon. Military: NATO (1949) vs Warsaw Pact (1955). States: FRG vs GDR (both 1949).
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Full study notes for Confrontation in Europe: containment, Berlin and the alliances
Topic 17.1 hub
Rivalry, mistrust and accord
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