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ABOUT IT! –EBS NEWS: THE NEWS OF THE DECADE-

The division of Germany and Berlin has for

years now been sweeping the nation with

great controversy. Because of the

countries’s significant influence around

the world and economic military strength,

the USA and Soviet Union are considered

superpowers. The United States and the

Soviet Union emerged from the Second World

War stronger than before they entered it.

They had mobilized their vast resources

for maximum effect: building more weapons

and placing more citizens under arms than

ever before in either country’s history.

They had also expanded their territorial

control and influenced far beyond previous limits. Both the

Soviet Union and the United States practised expansionism* and

established their spheres of

influence until the end of the

Cold War. The countries that the

Western Allies had liberated from

Nazi Germany fell under the

American influence, and the

countries that the Soviet Union

had liberated remained under the

Soviet influence. Both superpowers

responded to their fears with

containment. They attempted to avoid other countries’

expansionism by means other than war. Stalin saw postwar Soviet

expansionism not only as a way to “command the world economy”

(just as he had predicted in 1927), but also for historical and

geographical reasons as mentioned previously in this article. By

1961, Berlin had become the hotbed of Cold War tension!

*Editor’s note: Expansionisn is the attempt to enlarge

territorial and ideological influence beyond a country’s borders

and allies.

Editorial: A comment on the Division of Berlin and Germany

As an American, I for one understand the immense amount of grief

this division caused between the Soviet Union and United States. For

two countries both seeking power within Germany, the tension became

widespread and their ideologies divided the country. This event was

the initial cause of the Cold War, and led up to the major development

of tension between the countries. Either of the superpowers could have

chosen to work together, but their innate desire for control and power

stopped their potential cooperation. Working for their own good and

their inability to look past their power struggles sparked an ongoing

strain between the two superpowers. The borders that separated the

Soviet-Communist countries and Democratic-Capitalist countries became

increasingly important to both Americans and their allies and the

Soviet Union. These borders served to divide people by their

ideological differences, as well as political and economic

differences. In a now divided Germany, where many countries shared an

influence, the importance of the borders increased as tension grew

between the superpowers. Not only did the event of the division cause

significant amounts of stress between two very powerful countries who

could have combined their assets in a positive way, it lead up to an

extremely unnecessary war.

Bibliography Grade 12- The Cold War. (2008). Retrieved April 6, 2010, from the Internet:

http://www.sahistory.org.za/classroom/grade12/1_1_4.htm