The Breakdown, 1945-1949

From words to structures

Between 1945 and 1949 the Cold War hardened from mutual suspicion into a permanent division of Europe backed by rival institutions. In 1946 Winston Churchill, speaking at Fulton, Missouri, declared that an iron curtain had descended across the continent from the Baltic to the Adriatic. In the same period the American diplomat George Kennan sent his Long Telegram from Moscow, arguing that the Soviet Union was inherently expansionist and could be handled only through the patient, firm application of counterpressure. This idea, later published as containment, became the intellectual foundation of American policy for four decades.

The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan

The first major test came in the eastern Mediterranean. Britain, financially exhausted, announced