Dark blue: NATO Light blue; other US allies Dark red: Warsaw Pact Other red: other Soviet allies Gray: neutral
NATO Command 1949
Berlin Wall
NATO and Berlin
Conflict continued after World War Two. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as two superpowers and were pitted against one another in the Cold War. The rest of the world chose sides during this time and affiliated themselves accordingly. The United States found support among NATO states; the Soviet Union was backed by members of the Warsaw Pact. Germany, meanwhile, was divided by the Cold War. Berlin serves to show just how radical this division was.
NATO:
The North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington, D.C. on April 4, 1949. Its original membership included several European countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland, as well as the United States and Canada. According to NATO’s website, the treaty served to create an alliance with three purposes: to deter Soviet expansionism, forbid nationalist militarism from reviving in Europe, and encourage European political integration. The treaty’s fifth Article says that an attack on one member state is to be considered an attack on all member states. Articles Two and Three lay the foundation for military preparedness as well as non-military cooperation. Soon, other countries began joining as well, including Greece and Turkey in 1952 and West Germany in 1955.
The Soviet Union requested to join NATO in 1954. However, its proposal was rejected because the organization thought the Soviets wanted to undermine their alliance. In response, the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact, which included: Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
After the Soviet Union successfully detonated a nuclear bomb in 1949 and the Korean War broke out in 1950, NATO created a military headquarters in Paris, France. It was headed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, a US General. However, in the 1960s France became annoyed with the United States’ influence over NATO and began minimizing its role in NATO’s military affairs (even kicking out all non-French soldiers from its territory). Regardless, France remained a steadfast partner against the expansion of Soviet influence.
We can see just damaging Soviet influence was to European countries with the case of Berlin. Berlin was a very important city during the Cold War. Following the end of World War Two, the city was divided into four sections. Each was ruled by a different country: the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France. Eventually, the four sides blended according to the Cold War divide, and Berlin became a city with two distinct divisions: East and West.
West Berlin was a democratic enclave supported by the United States and its allies. As East Berlin grew poor and desperate under Soviet control, West Berlin prospered. And it was not just like this in Berlin; rather, all of West Germany prospered under support from the United States while East Germany suffered. However, Berlin was particularly unique because the city was in the heart of East Germany. So, when thousands and then millions of Germans from the East began migrating West, West Berlin was an easy choice. Indeed, the Soviets tried to block people from moving, but that was hard to do because West Berlin was right there in East Germany.
And so, in August 1961, the Soviets built the Berlin Wall (or, as they called it, the “anti-fascist protection barrier”). The wall was first built with barbed wire, which was then replaced with concrete blocks. West Berlin soon became surrounded by a wall that was four meters high and 111 kilometers long. It had 300 watch towers and was guarded by soldiers with orders to shoot anyone who tried to climb it. The wall stood there until 1989, when it was destroyed, and the two parts of the city were once again united. The unification proved a success in NATO’s face-off with the Soviet Union.