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Introduction/Background
Post war Europe found itself largely rebuilding from the effects of WWII. Economies as well as actual countries had been devastated by the war. Meanwhile the beginnings of what would soon be termed the Cold War were forming as the geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies was underway. On the Western side, the American foreign policy pledged American "support for democracies against authoritarian threats” and this was strongly supported by the likes of Great Britain. However, trouble was brewing…
Beginning in 1946, President Harry Truman’s approval rating had dropped significantly due to multiple domestic issues compounded by Truman’s own strained relationship with journalists. This dissatisfaction would lead to large Democratic losses in the 1946 midterm elections, and Republicans took control of Congress for the first time since 1930.
1948 would prove to be a pivotal year. In late February, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia through a coup d'état. In March, the Treaty of Brussels was signed by Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, providing for economic, social and cultural collaboration and collective self-defence. In June, the West faced a crisis when the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. This would soon become known as the Berlin Blockade and would witness the establishment of an airlift to ensure the survival of the city.
In the USA, it was an election year and President Truman was now far from popular. The euphoria of winning the war was long diminished and the transition of the economy back to a peacetime one had witnessed the ending of price controls and as a consequence, inflation was soaring. It didn’t help that a block of Republicans and conservative southern Democrats formed a powerful "conservative coalition" voting bloc aimed at undermining Truman’s initiatives.
Concurrently, the long tradition of American isolationism was finding resurgence with many decrying the 400,000 plus deaths as reason why the USA shouldn’t be involved in such overseas wars. This even though the USA only entered the war after being directly attacked by Imperial Japan. There was also a growing sentiment that in Europe at least the likes of Great Britain and much of Western Europe had been bailed out by the USA and that they were owed for doing so. Such sentiment was further enflamed when in March /April, President Truman signed what would soon become known as the Marshall Plan. This plan was to provide foreign aid to Western Europe to help rebuild their economies and to infrastructure. Many in the USA expressed growing anger with such aid with calls for the aid to be spent at home instead.
Into this environment, General Douglas MacArthur stepped. Having gained a reputation, in no small part to his own self-promotion, as a war hero in the Pacific in WWII and more recently, as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) in Japan, MacArthur built a reputation as the statesman who had "transformed" Japan. Sensing the growing discontentment, in March MacArthur issued a press statement declaring his interest in being the Republican nominee for president.
Momentum behind MacArthur soon built and by the Republican National Convention in June he was the leading candidate and was endorsed as presidential candidate over his primary rival, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey. Campaigning on an increasing isolationist platform, MacArthur got a further boost when President Truman signed an Executive Order ending racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces. MacArthur leapt on this decision and declared that Truman was undermining the Armed Forces that he had led. He also campaigned on a popular isolationist policy of “Bringing our boys back home!” which would entail ending American troop deployments and associated expenditure offshore. Seen to be fighting a national hero, Truman struggled to gain traction, even trying to enlist the support of another former general, Dwight Eisenhower who did not like MacArthur and was quite willing to help.
Alas, come election day in November, the results were in and in a result that shocked no-one, voters elected MacArthur as the 34th President of the USA.
In January 1949, President MacArthur was thus sworn in. He quickly moved to implement what he declared his “America First” agenda. These included a combination of isolationist policies such as his “Bringing our boys back home!” promise, especially from Europe. He also tore up the Marshall Plan declaring it as socialist support for wealthy Europeans who had dragged the USA into their war.
The effect on Great Britain and the European nations was dramatic. With an increasingly belligerent USSR on the doorstep and now with the USA seemingly pulling out of Europe and reverting to an isolationist mindset, many were hoping that once the bluster of the election was over and once in office proper, MacArthur would revert to more traditional policies. That said, leaders such as British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, French President Vincent Auriol and Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent all travelled to Washington DC to meet with the new American president. They were to be disappointed though as MacArthur not only stuck firm to his policies but indeed went further. With the Marshall Plan already dead, MacArthur now moved to call in the European powers’ debts demanding that those from both world wars and the loans since be repaid post-haste. This move was popular at home as MacArthur promised it would be spent on Americans rather than Europeans to rebuild their empires.
The commencement of the withdrawal of American forces forced European leaders to scramble for a solution in the face of the Soviet threat. This was especially the case since, following the US declarations, the decision had to be made to give up Berlin. This resulted in deplorable scenes as the last planes out of Berlin were rushed by Berliners trying to get safe passage out of the city. The Soviet forces allowed remaining Allied ground forces to drive out unmolested, but no civilians were to accompany them. The last forces left on the 12th May 1949. Thus ended one of the last relics of WW2.
It soon became evident that Europe now needed to work together with a collective defence approach as no one single nation had the power to face the Soviet forces individually. Even then, it was feared that all of Europe would not be enough, especially since many were still recovering from the war. It was also recognised that it was impractical for their front line, in the form of West Germany, to not be a part of this. Therefore, on the heels of the Bonn–Paris conventions whereby West Germany was no longer treated as an occupied nation and that its armed forces, the Bundeswehr would also be reformed.
Eventually, it was Britain, who offered a solution by bring its British Commonwealth to the table to help bolster the European nations. Thus, on 4th April 1949, building upon the Treaty of Brussels, the British Commonwealth-European Treaty Agreement (BETA) was created. At its inception this comprised the following members:
• Britain and its Commonwealth (thus Canada, Australia etc…)
• France
• West Germany
• Belgium
• Denmark
• Greece
• Iceland
• Italy
• Luxembourg
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Portugal
• Spain
• Turkey
These actions resulted in a tense situation on the border with the USSR and it’s Eastern European allies as Soviets claimed nothing had changed since WW2 and that a "4th Reich" was being created. That said, as their recent win in Berlin was fully digested and not being willing to do anything that might provoke the USA to change its withdrawal of forces, nothing further would happen…for now.
Meanwhile in the East, the Chinese civil war was in its final phases. The Kuomintang (KMT) led government was increasingly seen as corrupt, vindictive, and with no overall vision of what China under its rule should look like. Their forces were being overwhelmed and were falling back everywhere. On 1 October 1949, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Mao Zedong formally proclaimed the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. Chiang Kai-shek and approximately two million KMT soldiers subsequently retreated from mainland China to the island of Taiwan in December after the communist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) advanced into Sichuan province. Isolated Nationalist pockets of resistance remained in the area, but the majority of resistance collapsed after the fall of Chengdu on 10 December 1949.
Thus ended the 1940s…