Inventing

By John T. Correll t the Allied Big Three conference at By January 1946, US troops were Atlantic Ocean than it had been in 1939. Yalta in February 1945, President returning home from overseas at the rate The Baltic states seized by the Soviets in Franklin D. Roosevelt announced of 300,000 a month. The Russians, on 1940 were now “republics” in the USSR Athat US troops were unlikely to the other hand, maintained their military and the nations of eastern Europe were stay in Europe for more than two years strength. The Red Army in central Europe repressive Soviet satellite regimes. Never after the end of World War II. outnumbered the British, French, and before in their history had the Russians The war had forced the United States to Americans by 30 divisions to seven, with held a position of such opportunity. depart from its traditional foreign policy of more in reserve in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, a wartime ally, was isolationism, but the nation had no inten- The line of Soviet occupation lay west not yet seen as an adversary. President tion of forming any peacetime alliances of the Elbe in Germany—the new frontier Harry S. Truman, like Roosevelt before or getting entangled in European politics. of the Soviet Union, 700 miles closer to the him, hoped to gain the support of USSR

62 AIR FORCE Magazine / August 2016 AIR FORCE Magazine / August 2016 / August

USAF photo was presumed to depend. Nations, upon which the postwar peace Premier Joseph Stalin for the new United Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson. of Defense Secretary Dean ofState Secretary US and Acheson Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal and US of Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, representatives by flanked 1949, 24, Aug. Office, Oval the in Treaty Atlantic North the signs Truman Harry President Below: German F-104G, and Netherlands F-104G. West IIIC, Mirage French F-104G, Belgian Thunderchief, Canadian CF-104 Starfighter, F-105 USAF 9, Mk Javelin RAF top,an from Left: NATO aircraft in 1970. Clockwise continues to be in capitalist encirclement.” “We must remember that our country Another member of the Politburo added, try willbeinsuredagainst any eventuality.” build onSoviet strengthsothat“ourcoun substantial aid given to the USSR. virtually ignoring Allied forces and the all of the credit for the defeat of Germany, Army andtheSoviet industrial basenearly of the two world wars. He gave the Red “monopoly capitalism” as the basic cause the end of Soviet cordiality. A radio speech by Stalin Feb. 9 marked partners in the United States and Britain. between the Soviet Union and its former BREAKUP disruption. ties to Moscow promoted discontent and southern Europe, communist parties with for further concessions. In western and elections inliberatedEurope,pressed when he reneged on his promise of free jection from the Americans and British Stalin, encountering only token ob Stalin announced a new five-year plan to In a long-winded rant, he condemned A series of events in 1946 drove a wedge

National Archives photo by Abbie Rowe - - communist faction instigated an insur elections in Greece by a landslide, but a presence in the Mediterranean. created the US Sixth Fleet as a permanent ships to the area as a show of force and end completelyuntiltheUnitedStatessent power into the Mediterranean. dominate the Dardanelles strait and project Turkey from which the Soviet Union could Stalin also demanded a military base in Soviets defiantly delayed their departure. from Iran when the war ended, but the had agreedat Yalta towithdraw theirforces and Turkey. The US, Britain, and Russia clumsy Soviet efforts to intimidate Iran them to Moscow. espionage in New Mexico and passed had obtained US atomic secrets through spy ring operating out of Canada that disclosed the arrest of 13 persons in a of the ancient states of Eastern Europe. said. “Behind that line lie all the capitals scended across the continent,” Churchill in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has de headlines around the world. Churchill onMarch6inFulton, Mo., made by former British Prime Minister Winston knowledge but the “Iron Curtain” speech doctrine in the Cold War. eventually became the cornerstone of US urged a policy of “containment,” which total destruction of rival power.” Kennan mitted toa“patientbut deadlystruggle for want peaceful coexistence and was com Kennan reported that the USSR did not d’affaires at the US embassy in Moscow. of State from George F. Kennan, chargé 19-page “Long Telegram” totheSecretary ing of Soviet intentions in the famous speech, Washington received early warn IRON CURTAIN of theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization. side, events were aligning for the creation viet Unionandinternationalcommunism. make a sharp distinction between the So in Greece, but the Western powers did not Stalin kept his distance from the fighting in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Albania. supported bythecommunistgovernments gency. It rapidly grew into a civil war, In March, a conservative coalition won The pressureonIranand Turkey didnot The situation was further inflamed by A few days later, Canadian officials “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste Kennan’s telegram was notpublic On Feb. 22, two weeks after Stalin’s Unbeknownst to the players on either 63 - - - - - Library of Congress photo National Museum of the US Air Force photo

Above: Ernest Bevin, Britain’s foreign Secretary of State James F. Byrnes said. to participate in the cooperative rebuilding secretary and the man who originally proposed NATO. Above right: US transport “I want no misunderstanding. We will not of Europe. After extensive debate in 1947, aircraft unload at Tempelhof Airport shirk our duty. We are not withdrawing. it was signed into law in April 1948. during the Berlin airlift. We are staying here, and will furnish our The Russians, who wanted to keep tight Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, proportionate share of the security forces.” control of their puppet states, complained Belgrade, Bucharest, and Sofia, all these that the Marshall Plan would lead to famous cities and the populations around THE US TAKES A HAND the Americanization of Europe. In Italy them lie in what I must call the Soviet The new US policy began to take shape and Turkey, local communists obediently sphere, and all are subject in one form or in 1947 with the “Truman Doctrine” and staged strikes and street demonstrations another, not only to Soviet influence but to the Marshall Plan. to support Soviet objections. a very high, and in some cases, increasing Speaking to a joint session of Congress Eventually, 16 European nations and the measure of control from Moscow.” in March, Truman called for economic and three western zones in Germany received Churchill did not mention a European military support for Greece and Turkey but Marshall Plan aid amounting to more military alliance, only a continuance of the went beyond that to state a broad principle. than $12 billion, but the Soviets would “special relationship” between the United “It must be the policy of the United States not allow their client states to receive any States and Britain, but what he meant was to support free peoples who are resisting such assistance. well understood. attempted subjugation by armed minorities The Europeans were alarmed enough There was an immediate backlash from or by outside pressures,” he said. about their security to make two regional various members of Congress and liberal Truman’s message was lamented both defense agreements, the Dunkirk Treaty groups still enchanted with Stalin and the by isolationists and pro-Russia liberals. between Britain and France in 1947 and the Soviet Union. Secretary of Commerce The Progressive Citizens of America said five-nation Brussels Treaty in early 1948. Henry A. Wallace, who had been vice Truman’s speech “announces the end of These arrangements were insufficient in president from 1941 to 1945, denounced an American policy based on one world” scope to deal with the growing problem the speech as “an attack on a former ally.” and “threatens the peace of the world.” of the Soviet Union. Truman had accompanied Churchill to However, Truman was strongly rein- Missouri and was present for the speech but forced by Sen. Arthur H. Vandenberg (R- BEVIN’S PROPOSAL took political cover by refusing to comment Mich.), a former isolationist and chairman The proposal that led directly to the on what Churchill had said. Before the of the Senate Foreign Relations Commit- North Atlantic Treaty Organization was year was out, however, the United States tee. The Truman Doctrine was approved by made in January 1948 by Ernest Bevin, came reluctantly to the understanding lopsided votes in both houses of Congress. the foreign secretary in Britain’s postwar that a return to the isolationist past was The European Recovery Plan, known Labour government. no longer possible. to history as the Marshall Plan, originated Bevin, a former truck driver and trade In September 1946, the United States with George C. Marshall, the Army Chief union leader, had gone to work at age 11 canceled the plan for US troops to leave Eu- of Staff during the war who became Sec- and had little formal education, but is rope. “Security forces will probably have retary of State in January 1947. It offered widely regarded as one of the most able to remain in Germany for a long period,” major economic aid to nations that agreed foreign ministers of the century.

64 AIR FORCE Magazine / August 2016 “I believe the time is ripe for a a draft treaty for a North Atlantic alliance. The Russians accused the US and consolidation of Western Europe,” Bevin The main point of contention was Article Britain of fomenting an aggressive policy said in a thundering speech to Parliament 5, the “commitment clause,” which obliged to establish “Anglo-American world Jan. 22. The Soviet Union had “cut off all signatories to go to war on behalf of domination,” which was “very menacing eastern Europe from the rest of the world any of the others who were attacked. The for peace-loving peoples.” and turned it into an exclusive, self- Europeans wanted a stronger commitment The North Atlantic Treaty was signed contained block under the control of than the Americans were prepared to give. April 4 by Belgium, Britain, Canada, Den- Moscow and the Communist Party,” he said. mark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Winston Churchill arose immediately THE CREATION OF NATO Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the from the opposition bench to praise Bevin, In January 1949, Truman announced United States. recalling how he had said much the same that he hoped to soon send a proposed As the treaty moved toward ratifica- thing in his Iron Curtain speech in 1946. North Atlantic security treaty to the tion hearings in the Senate, the strongest Bevin no doubt welcomed the support, Senate. In actuality, the Senate was a full opponent was a powerful Republican but Churchill’s endorsement did him no participant from the beginning in review stalwart, Sen. Robert A. Taft of Ohio, who political good with the left wing of his and modification of the draft. The New complained that the commitment clause own party. York Times and other newspapers carried could drag the US into war, bypassing The big question was what role the daily blow-by-blow reports of the exchange the Constitutional provision that wars be United States might take. Marshall noted between the White House and Congress. declared by Congress. with approval that the Europeans were The argument was mostly about Article Taft suggested instead “a Monroe Doc- moving beyond their agreements for 5. As drafted, it said that in the event of trine for western Europe” patterned on the economic coordination to the consideration an attack on one nation, all of the others declaration by President James Monroe of a western European union. On the other would respond with “such military or other in 1823 warning that the United States hand, the isolationists and the liberal left action ... as may be required.” There was would regard European intervention in were opposed to an American-European significant objection to such an “automatic the western hemisphere as “dangerous to alliance, as were the Joint Chiefs of Staff, commitment.” In the Senate, Vandenberg our peace and safety” and would respond who were reluctant to divert US military and Sen. Tom Connally (D-Texas), who by military force if required. resources and funding. had succeeded Vandenberg as chairman The US should decide for itself when Once again, the heavy hand of the Soviet of the Foreign Relations Committee, led and where to fight in Europe, Taft said. Union tipped the scales. In February, a the negotiations for change. He was unable to persuade his colleagues Soviet-directed coup ousted the government The final draft said that an armed attack and on July 21, the Senate confirmed the in Czechoslovakia and replaced it with a against one nation would be regarded treaty, 83-13. client regime. Except for Berlin, the as an attack against all, but that each of conquest of Eastern Europe was complete. them would take “such action as it deems IMPLEMENTING THE ALLIANCE In June, the Soviet Union decided to necessary, including the use of armed In 1949, Hastings Ismay, the first blockade Berlin, the first big event of the force.” The Europeans did not like the Secretary General of NATO, said the Cold War. Berlin lay 110 miles inside the watered-down language but understood purpose of the alliance was “to keep the part of Germany held by the Russians, but that an ambiguous commitment was the Russians out, the Americans in, and the the city itself was under four-power control. best they were going to get. Germans down,” but the new organization It was divided into American, British, French, and Soviet occupation zones. Stalin, fearing the growth of US influence in Europe and disliking the attractive example West Berlin set for its East German neighbors, cut off all road, rail, and river routes into West Berlin on June 24. However, three air corridors, each 20 miles wide, remained open. These became the routes for the Berlin airlift, flown principally by US transports, to sustain West Berlin with food, fuel, and supplies until the Russians lifted the blockade in 1949. By the end of 1948, meetings between US and European diplomats had produced

Right: US Army 2nd Lt. William Robertson (l) and Soviet Red Army Lt. Alexander Sylvashko pose in front of a sign that says, “East meets West” near Torgau, Germany, on April 25, 1945.

AIR FORCE Magazine / August 2016 65 USAF photo by MSgt. Chadwick J. Eiring via National Archives USAF photo by MSgt. Chadwick J. Eiring via National US Information Agency photo via National Archives National via photo Agency Information US East German soldiers set up roadblocks Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived in TSgt. Paul Svetlovics (l) an AWACS weap- at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in ons controller, is thanked by Gen. Joseph 1961, separating East Germany and West April 1951 as the first Supreme Allied Ralston, Supreme Allied Commander, Germany. Commander, Europe. Europe (r), for NATO AWACS missions The communist parallel to NATO, the flown in Operation Eagle Assist following the 9/11 terror attacks in the US. was not nearly prepared to fulfill such a Warsaw Pact, was created in 1955, overseen Imperial War Museum photo description. by the Soviet Union with Albania, Bulgaria, For the first two years, NATO was Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, the establishment of friendly regimes, essentially a political association with no Poland, and Romania as members. The it organized elections in Poland, military structure. Allied military forces organizational change was nominal since Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and elsewhere. in Europe were organized and positioned the Soviets had been in control all along. These had approximately as much for occupation duty rather than combat, Suppression by the Red Army of the brief legitimacy as elections held under US and they were badly outnumbered by the Hungarian revolution in 1956 served notice occupation in Iraq or Afghanistan in later Soviet troops on the other side of the line. that the client states were not independent. years, or at any point in Latin America.” The Pentagon had no intention of as- NATO was “formed to aggressively signing more forces to Europe. In the US EXPANSION AND ENDURANCE confront the USSR,” he said. “Isn’t it view—which was not exactly what the Greece and Turkey joined NATO in 1952, obvious that Russia is the one being Europeans were hoping for—the Ameri- and West Germany was admitted in 1955. surrounded, pressured, and threatened?” cans would provide a strategic bombing That brought membership in the alliance to The nations and peoples of the Warsaw capability, backed by the credibility of the 15 nations, the configuration that prevailed Pact reached a far different conclusion. The atomic bomb, while most of the ground through most of the Cold War. Pact disbanded in July 1991, six months forces and tactical air defense would Today, NATO has 28 members, having ahead of the collapse of the Soviet Union. come from the Europeans themselves. added most of the Baltic and east European As soon as they were free to do so, every Plans changed quickly in 1949 when nations. Sixty-seven years after its founding, one of the former Pact nations joined NATO. the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic the alliance is still plugging along. In addition, eight more countries in eastern weapon and China fell to a communist As always, NATO has its critics, foremost Europe have established partnerships with revolution. In June 1950, North Korea in- among them Russian President Vladimir NATO. vaded South Korea. Western intelligence Putin. In December 2015, Putin proclaimed In 1949, the abiding concern about the saw these events as interrelated parts of a new security strategy that depicted NATO Article 5 commitment clause was whether world communism on the march. In 1951, as a threat to his country. the United States might be drawn into a the United States sent four additional Gary P. Leupp, an associate professor war to defend the European members of army divisions to Europe, increasing of history at Tufts University, expressed NATO from the Soviet Union. the total to six, and built up the US Air a similar assessment in “NATO: Seeking Ironically, Article 5 was invoked for the Forces in Europe. Russia’s Destruction Since 1949,” first time by unanimous vote of the North In 1947, the number of USAFE aircraft published in the Dec. 25, 2015, issue of Atlantic Council on Sept. 12, 2001, the had dwindled to 458 from a wartime high Counterpunch magazine. day after the terrorist attacks against the of 17,000. Of those, fewer than half were “It’s clear that the US has, to the World Trade Center and Pentagon in the combat aircraft, with only three dozen of consternation of the Russian leadership, United States. them—three B-17 bombers, two A-26 at- sustained a posture of confrontation with Within days, NATO Airborne Warning tack bombers, and 31 P-47 fighters—fully the Cold War foe principally taking the and Control System aircraft were operational. With the buildup, USAFE form of NATO expansion,” Leupp said. dispatched to the United States where added 25 new bases and by 1954, had After World War II, Russia “wanted they flew alongside US aircraft on the 2,100 aircraft in operation. F-84 and F-86 preeminently to secure its western patrol of American airspace for the next fighters replaced the obsolescent P-47s. border,” Leupp explained. “To insure five months. J Allied Command Europe, the military arm of NATO, was established in 1951 John T. Correll was editor in chief of Air Force Magazine for 18 years and is now and Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers a contributor. His most recent article, “The Yom Kippur Airlift,” appeared in the Europe (SHAPE) was set up in Paris. July issue. 66 AIR FORCE Magazine / August 2016