The Berlin Wall: The Cold War

Now that The Berliners were isolated from the world, they couldn’t get any supplies and the sectors only had enough coal to last 45 days and food to last just 36 days. West Berlin relied entirely on their allies to transport supplies into the capital or city or something. The Western Powers generally transported supplies by ways of trucks and railway. Democracy was becoming too strong so the Soviet Union thought that they could drive the Western Powers out of West Berlin. They thought that if they could block any way of the allies from coming into West Berlin by land, they would eventually give up and stop supporting them.

Berlin was known as the centerpiece of the Cold War. Being the capital city of Germany, the desire to have power over it was extremely high. Germany was split into two, the East, taken over by the Soviet Union, and the West, taken over by the United States, Britain, and France. Tensions rose between each country on who would be able to have power over Berlin. Since the city was on the east side and up to 100 miles inside Soviet-controlled East Germany, the Soviets had power; However, the West would not allow them to take over the capital city so easily.

Breaking Boundaries The Berlin Wall was built to separate the Communist east from the Democratic west. This ominous divider was was twelve feet of concrete that stretched for one hundred miles around West Berlin. The infamous symbol of the Cold War was guarded by electric fences and guard posts stationed along it.

The Soviet Union requested substantial reparations from Germany, but the United States recalled the reason that World War II started was because of post World War I reparations. In March and April 1947, the United States, British, French, and Soviet officials met in Moscow to arrange Germany’s future, but failed. After the conference, the Western Allies unified their German occupation zones to create West Germany. In response to this, Soviets built the Berlin Blockade, cutting off railways, highways, and waterways into West Berlin. To counteract this, the United States airlifted food and supplies to the residents, until Soviets finally realized their blockade was not achieving their goals, and tore it down in May 1949.

Berlin air lift 1948 After world war II, Germany was dived into for parts. Those four pats were divided among Great Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union each governing their own part. As hatred began to grow between the Soviet Union and the West, Stalin decided to create a separate communist state that included Berlin. To maintain that, Stalin surrounded the western half of Berlin and that caused the Berlin airlift, created by Truman. In 1949, Stalin had removed the blockade.

One characterizing feature of the military in the 80 's was the Cold War which lasted from 1983-1988. The most notable product of the Cold War was the Berlin Wall built in 1961 some time after the Second World War. The function of this wall was to divide Germany among the allies. The eastern half went to the Soviet Union, and the western half went to the United States, Great Britain and France. This wall would stop the flow of refugees from the communist east Germany to the west.

Summary of Evidence SOURCE B (THE BERLIN WALL: A SECRET HISTORY) The Berlin Wall separated many families as it divided Berlin into a communist and capitalist state. This division spread anger throughout the world as it became an international crisis. This worldwide anger proves that the Wall did not only cause a physical division but divided communist and capitalist countries throughout the world. This divide was known as the Iron Curtain.

First, they strung barbed wire around the entrances into West Berlin. Next, they put up a wall that was a few feet off the ground, so they could see outside but could not climb

The whole of Communist Europe was swept by revolution in 1989, one by one, all the Communist states were overthrown by democracy, and by 1990, this great divide brought the Eastern European countries solidarity and democracy. On October 3rd, 1990, the world viewed the unfolding of thousands of ecstatic, euphoric and exuberant Germans bringing down the most prominent icon of divide at the heart of Europe—the Berlin Wall. For two generations, the Wall was the powerful depiction of the Iron Curtain. In fact, East German border guards had orders to shoot people trying to defect. But just as the Wall had become a symbol of the division of Europe, its fall came to denote the end of the Cold War.

Tear Down This Wall: This book source is a recount of the events of the Cold War, focused on the question of President Reagan’s role in eliminating the conflict between Russia and the United States. It was written by Romesh Ratnesar, the deputy managing editor of Time magazine, and published in 2009. Its purpose was to follow Reagan’s presidency and the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, emphasizing the ability of one person’s words to change the world. It is somewhat valuable due to its

The Cold War lasted forty plus years and these conflicting ideologies threatened peace throughout the world, consequently the battle verses communism and democracy was at the root of the Cold War conflict. Social, political, and economic conditions of the world were influenced by the ongoing threats of the Cold War. In the Soviet Union, communist rulers firmly controlled all aspects of Soviet life and they dominated Eastern Europe through imperialism. The Soviet government held a tight grip on its citizens and used fear to control them, hence western influences were forbidden because the government thought it would poison and threaten their beliefs. The government and economy was often unstable and was frequently on the verge of collapse,

Around 1945, tensions began arising between the US and the USSR, which lead to the Cold War. During a 40 year time period, each nation tried to spread their political and economic systems. Both the US and the USSR wanted to spread their ideologies across the world. The origin of the Cold War was distrust; in “fighting” this war, the political and military tactics were the most effective.

In his speech, President Ronald Reagan addresses the wall separating the East and West sides of Berlin, Germany. He emphasises the strain it puts on the country and how devastating the dividing of the city really is. The wall dividing the city makes contact between families on both sides unnecessarily difficult. Not to mention the message that the wall brings; the remnants of a tense cold war. Despite how strong the Berliners are, the wall puts too much strain on the city, the country, and the rest of the world.

The United States and the Soviet Union’s alliance came to an end from 1945-1950. Then from 1947 to 1991, the Cold War took place and these two nations were competitors at every thing they did during the war. Both nations wanted to have the main influence an impact on life throughout the world. They wanted global charge and other nations to follow the same economic and political systems. The Cold War put both of these nations at test to see who could succeed the most.

The Cold War is a very significant event, and perhaps one of the most important throughout US history. The Cold War shaped American in many aspects like, foreign policy, political ideology (ism’s), economy, the presidency, and lives of American’s. According to APA, (American Psychological Association) the Cold War was, “intense economic, political, military, and ideological rivalry between nations, short of military conflict; sustained hostile political policies and an atmosphere of strain between opposed countries.” The Cold War on foreign policy had to step up against the Soviet Union, the strategy they implemented was called “containment”. Containment was a policy used by the US using strategies to prevent the spread of communism overseas