V o L u m e I : a d

izations, such as the Council of Europe and the European Common Market.

Militarily the emergency quickly brought about the Brussels Pact and the

formation of NATO.

France and Great Britain had already signed a military alliance at Dunkirk

in March 1947. A year later these two countries, along with Belgium, Lux-

embourg, and the Netherlands, joined forces in the Treaty of Brussels. Fun-

damentally an agreement for social, economic, and cultural collaboration,

it was also a military alliance of the five nations that inevitably took on the

character of a defensive alliance against the Russians. Because the Treaty of

Brussels (Brussels Pact) countries would obviously not be able to defend

themselves without U.S. assistance, discussions were soon under way for a

broader alliance.

In June 1948 there was a significant break with tradition in American for-

eign policy. Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, Republican and chairman of the

powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, drafted a resolution that was

approved by the Senate. It reaffirmed the U.S. policy of working with the

UN. It was the sense of the Senate that the veto should be removed from all

Origins of the Cold War to 1950

25

Berlin children play Luftbrucke (air bridge) during the Berlin Airlift of 1948–1949. They used model American planes

sold in German toy shops throughout the western sector of Berlin. (U.S. Air Force)

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questions involving international disputes and the admission of new mem-

bers. It also associated the United States “with such regional and other col-

lective arrangements as are based on continuous and effective self-help and

mutual aid, as affect the national security.” This ran counter to George Wash-

ington’s admonition against “entangling alliances,” which had been heeded

since 1796.

Talks began between the West European allies and the United States

and, on 4 April 1949 the North Atlantic Pact was signed in Washington by the

United States, Canada, Britain, France, the three Benelux states, Norway,

Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, and Italy. By this treaty, the twelve nations

declared that “an armed attack against one or more . . . shall be considered

an attack against them all,” and each would assist the attacked in whatever

fashion it deemed best, including by armed force. The resultant NATO would

be headed by a council and a defense committee; Supreme Headquarters

Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) was ultimately set up outside of Paris. The

treaty went into effect, after ratification, on 24 August 1949 for a twenty-year

period. As one pundit put it, “NATO was created to keep the Americans in,

the Russians out, and the Germans down.” It could be argued, however, that

the new American policies, so far removed from the public mood in 1945,

were more the result of perceived Soviet pressure than any initiative from

Washington.

Thus the opening round of the Cold War ended in stalemate, with each

side entrenched in its half of the continent. For the time being, however,

Europe had a breathing spell. But the status quo was about to change. In late

August 1949 the USSR exploded its first atomic bomb, an event that shocked

Washington and shattered the U.S. atomic monopoly. In October 1949 the

communists were victorious in China, and on 25 June 1950 war broke out in

Korea. The Cold War was entering a new and far more dangerous phase.

Spencer C. Tucker

See also

Acheson, Dean Gooderham; Berlin Blockade and Airlift; Bevin, Ernest; Brussels

Treaty; Byrnes, James Francis; Churchill, Winston; Clay, Lucius DuBignon;

Comecon; Cominform; Kennan, George Frost; Malik, Jacob Aleksandrovich;

Marshall, George Catlett; Marshall Plan; Molotov, Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich;

Molotov Plan; North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Origins and Formation of;

Paris Peace Conference and Treaties; Roosevelt, Franklin Delano; Truman,

Harry S.; Truman Doctrine; Vandenberg Resolution; World War II, Allied

Conferences

References

Acheson, Dean. Present at the Creation: My Years at the State Department. New York:

Norton, 1969.

Bullock, Alan. Ernest Bevin: Foreign Secretary, 1945–1951. New York: Norton, 1983.

Byrnes, James F. Speaking Frankly. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1947.

Chace, James. Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World. New York:

Simon and Schuster, 1998.

26

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Feis, Herbert. Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference. Princeton, NJ: Prince-

ton University Press, 1957.

Fontaine, Andre. History of the Cold War, 1917–1966. 2 vols. New York: Pantheon,

1968.

Gaddis, John Lewis. We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History. New York: Oxford

University Press, 1997.

Hogan, Michael J. A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Secu-

rity State, 1945–1954. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Kennan, George F. Memoirs, 1925–1950. Boston: Little, Brown, 1967.

Kuniholm, Bruce R. The Origins of the Cold War: Great Power Conflict and Diplomacy in

Iran, Turkey and Greece. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994.

Seton-Watson, Hugh. Neither War nor Peace: The Struggle for Power in the Postwar World.

New York: Praeger, 1960.

Thomas, Hugh. Armed Truce: The Beginnings of the Cold War, 1945–1946. New York:

Atheneum, 1987.

Yergin, Daniel H. Shattered Peace: The Origins of the Cold War. New York: Penguin, 1990.

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