Unit XI: Leader of the Free World: 1945-1975

Question/Problem 1: In what ways did the United States and the Soviet Union conduct a "cold war" beginning in 1946?

In 1949, General Lucius Clay, the military governor of American-occupied Germany, advised the U.S. Secretary of the Army that he believed the United States must not be driven from Berlin by the Soviet blockade of that city.

When Berlin falls, western Germany will be next. If we mean... to hold Europe against Communism, we must not budge. We can take humiliation and pressure short of war in Berlin without losing face. If we withdraw, our position in Europe is threatened. If America does not understand this now, does not know that the issue is cast, then it never will and communism will run rampant. I believe the future of democracy requires us to stay....This is not heroic pose because there will be nothing heroic in having to take humiliation without retaliation.