The Cold War and GDR Reconstruction
The "Cold War" is the term used to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union in the wake of World War II. Although the U.S. and the Soviets were allies during the war opposing Nazi Germany, leaders in both nations distrusted the other because of the power each had in its own sphere: capitalist vs. communist, democracy vs. autocracy. Instead of directly fighting each other, though, the two superpowers "fought" each other through the support of client states, such as Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) for the U.S., and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) for the Soviet Union.
Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin
meeting at the Yalta Conference, 1945, to plan the defeat of Germany.
meeting at the Yalta Conference, 1945, to plan the defeat of Germany.
In the aftermath of WWII, both sides of Germany began to rebuild, but each with a different mentor. The Soviets controlled the eastern part of the country, and the French, British, and the U.S. controlled the western side. The Marshall Plan was created to economically assist European democracies in rebuilding, to prevent their "fall" to the Soviets, while Soviet-held nations such as East Germany became the "Eastern Bloc", countries in which antifascism and communism were supported. East Germany was the most economically successful of the Eastern Bloc nations, and was seen by the U.S. as the linch pin of Soviet control of eastern Europe.
The relationship between the U.S. and the Soviet Union explains why East Germans were so keen to blame the U.S. for a Colorado potato beetle infestation. The farmers saw an American airplane flying low to deliver aid to West Germans over the western border, and when an unprecedented infestation followed, it was assumed that the U.S. wanted to destroy their crops in order to weaken their attempt at communism and East Germany's cooperation with the Soviet Union.
East German children looking at
Colorado potato beetles.
Colorado potato beetles.