Space race, coldwar
...e long Cold war. With the war finishing up, the USSR and USA emerged as the world’s dominant countries. A couple of years later the two leaders, Stalin and Truman were starting to their countries as rivals. The post war tension was hard. USA was doing all it can to prevent communism from spreading. They offered money, goods and equipment (The Marshall plan, June, 1947) to the war-torn states of Europe willing to work together to bring the economy back. They have to allow American companies to invest capital in their industries (P.55.MWH to GCSE). This wasn’t the only benefit that the USA gets. The plan to rush the improvements of the living conditions of Western Europe, as they believed that if the schedule was not met, people might vote for the communist party. While all this was happening, Stalin ordered his scientist to develop the atomic bomb. They were not told about this weapon while the WWII was still on progress; Stalin was threatened of not having the negotiation tool the U.S. possesses. Funding went into the Research Facilities. The strong concern of whether to share such sensitive piece of intelligence to a possible enemy was not an option with the West and this offended Stalin. Around 1947(MWH to GCSE), the USSR withdrew discussions with the National committee because they did not want them to know how weak the USSR really was. Stalin was convinced that if they do not make their Russian atom bomb soon, they would be like sitting ducks because the USA would eventually threaten to use it’s weapon against them, against communism. As communist domination continues, sometime between 1948-1949, the two rival nations fought for the occupation of Berlin. As we know, after WWII Germany was divided into two, east and west so as the city of Berlin. USSR occupies the east territory while USA helps out Western Europe. The war left Germany torn. Goods like fuel and food were limited and thousands were homeless. The western allies (USA and Britain) were eager to help Germany recover its prosperity as quickly as possible. The USSR did not want this as they wanted to keep Germany weak, but they also see this as an opportunity for the western allies to create democracy throughout Germany. This resulted with the finished construction of the Berlin wall. The Soviet aim was to force the West to surrender by starving them. The western option was to leave Berlin but they could not do this because it meant handing over 2 million West Berliners over communist rule and opening the way for Soviet domination of Western Germany. Also they would lose their only base inside the Iron Curtain. The Western allies can use force to open the routes for the aid, but this meant declaration of war with the USSR. So the British and Americans organized a daily airlift of essential supplies such as food, fuel, and medicines. The only alternate way for the USSR to stop this was to start shooting planes down, but that’s just bloody crazy. As a warning to the Reds, the U.S. stationed B-29 bombers capable of carrying atomic bombs in range. Despite all the hardship everyone was going through, West Berliners rejected Soviet pressure to become part of one city under a Communist rule (P.54, the Berlin Blockade, MWH to GCSE). This was a clear view of the continual rivalry between the Western Allies and the USSR. Well at this time, both Nations have the knowledge of creat...