Which of the following marked the start of the Cold War: Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech (1946), the Truman Doctrine (1947) or the Berlin Blockade (1948- 49)? Explain your answer. The Cold War was a state of extreme hostility

        The Truman Doctrine was an open and direct confrontation of the Soviets. In it, the Soviets were accused of ‘political oppression’, ‘suppression of personal freedoms’ and were even perceived as ‘evil’ by the Americans. Under the Doctrine, the US policy was to support people who resisted attempted subjugation by ‘outside pressure’ which meant the Soviets. The US felt the need to assist the ‘free’ people against the spread of Communism and saw the Soviets as a threat and an enemy. This was the first concrete and coherent American foreign policy towards the USSR. There was no immediate official response from the Soviet government. However, a few months later, the Soviet ‘Two Camps Speech’ emerged stating Soviet stand to American aggression. It stated officially that the USSR was anti- democracy. Also the need to prevent Western powers’ desire to dominate the world was emphasized; therefore the policy of cooperation between the Socialist and Liberal parties would cease to exist. Communist parties in Western European countries were told to adopt a militant anti-government stance. The USSR was no longer keen on peaceful cooperation and acknowledged the fact that the Americans and the Soviets could no longer be allies. This marked the start of the Cold War as the Truman Doctrine instigated and caused the end of any form of peaceful cooperation between the two powers.

The Berlin Blockade was a Soviet response to the merging of Western zones in Germany to form West Germany. Soviets did not want the prospect of an economic recovery in West Germany as it revived fears of invasion from Western democracies. The Western powers’ zone in Berlin lay within Soviet occupation zone; thus the Soviets wished to use Berlin to pressure the Western powers from creating the separatist Western German state whereby the Soviets held no power. All communication routes were blockaded, as well as supplies of food, electricity, gas and other necessities to starve the West Berliners into submission. If this failed, at least the Western powers’ zones in Berlin would belong to the Soviets. This blockade was also seen as a symbol of the ongoing Cold War between USSR and the Western Powers. The Cold War had begun by this time and both parties had seen each other as the enemy and as a threat ideologically as well as a potential threat to the safety of their countries. Thus the blockade did not inspire the start of the Cold War, as it was merely a reaction to a Western move which the Soviets saw as a threat. Airlift was used to send all supplies to the Western Berlin zones. This was highly successful and was considered as a first major victory for the Americans in the Cold War when the Soviets found that the blockade was not effective in starving the West Berliners into submission and ended the blockade.

The Iron Curtain Speech made in 1946 only served to build up suspicion and distrust between the two powers; at this point both powers were still Allies. The event that triggered off the Cold War was the Truman Doctrine whereby both parties were mutually hostile and did not believe in a possible peaceful coexistence anymore. The Americans and Soviets’ hostility to each other as well as the belief that they could no longer cooperate after the start of the Cold War resulted in the Berlin Blockade. Thus I can conclude that the Truman Doctrine marked the start of the Cold War.