Post-war Germany and the birth of a bipolar world

Extensive research has been done throughout the years on the Cold War. The study of this conflict, however, remains relevant to study. Because of the discovery of new archive materials and the introduction of new approaches in studying the Cold War, its historiography has developed throughout the years. The end of the Cold War and the end of the Soviet Union opened new archives, and that gave the study of the topic a boost. The world nowadays still is heavily influenced by the United States and Russia. To understand the current tensions and diplomacy between these two powers, the Cold War is important to understand. After Germany had been defeated in May 1945, its future was discussed at Potsdam. During the Potsdam talks, a policy was formulated for the future of Germany. Present at Potsdam were delegations of the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. It was at Potsdam that these Allies agreed to divide Germany into four zones of occupation, each ruled by an Allied commander. Furthermore, the country had to be denazified and the economy had to be partly dismantled in order to prevent Germany from rising as a military power again.. Each Ally was granted his own zone. Even though France had not been present at the Potsdam talks, they were granted their own zone of occupation. The goal that was formulated for post-war Germany was clear: Germany had to be unified economically as soon as possible. The government of Germany as a whole was the responsibility of the Allied Control Council. This Council consisted of the commanders of each of the zones. Problematic to the character of this Council was that decisions that influenced the whole of Germany had to be made unanimously. This meant that, in effect, each of the occupying powers had a veto. On top of that, the rule of each separate zone was autarkic, since each of the commanders was allowed to set up his zone to his own discretion. From the start of the occupation on, this meant that the character of each zone was very different. The ideological agendas of each Ally, as well as the economic interests, made that each zone was ruled differently. The differences between the Allies became apparent on several occasions. The difficulties of the inter-Allied cooperation became too important to overcome, which led to the end of Allied cooperation and the foundation of two separate German states in 1949: the German Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic. An important aspect of the end of the Allied cooperation was mutual distrust between the Soviet Union and the United States. This thesis considers the role of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in shaping the image the Americans had of the Soviets. Through considering several reports, this thesis analyses the way in which the CIA wrongly interpreted several Soviet actions, which led to a firmer American policy with regard to the German Question and communism in general.