Between Containment and Rollback

The United States and the Cold War in Germany

Christian F. Ostermann

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781503642058, 9781503606784
• eBook ISBN: 9781503607637
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: German History
• Index: History

In the aftermath of World War II, American policymakers turned to the task of rebuilding Europe while keeping communism at bay. In Germany, formally divided since 1949,the United States prioritized the political, economic, and, eventually, military integration of the fledgling Federal Republic with the West. The extraordinary success story of forging this alliance has dominated our historical under-standing of the American-German relationship. Largely left out of the grand narrative of American–German relations were most East Germans who found themselves caught under Soviet and then communist control by the post-1945 geo-political fallout of the war that Nazi Germany had launched. They were the ones who most dearly paid the price for the country's division. This book writes the East Germans—both leadership and general populace—back into that history as objects of American policy and as historical agents in their own right

Based on recently declassified documents from American, Russian, and German archives, this book demonstrates that U.S. efforts from 1945 to 1953 went beyond building a prosperous democracy in western Germany and "containing" Soviet-Communist power to the east. Under the Truman and then the Eisenhower administrations, American policy also included efforts to undermine and "roll back" Soviet and German communist control in the eastern part of the country. This story sheds light on a dark-er side to the American Cold War in Germany: propaganda, covert operations, economic pressure, and psychological warfare. Christian F. Ostermann takes an international history approach, capturing Soviet and East German responses and actions, and drawing a rich and complex picture of the early East–West confrontation in the heart of Europe.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Series Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface: Writing East Germany into Cold War History
• Acknowledgments
• Map of Allied Occupation Zones, 1945–1949
• 1. “Toward a Line down the Middle of Germany”: Containment at Potsdam, 1945
• 2. “Western Democracy on the Elbe”? Rollback through Cooperation
• 3. The United States and the Political Transformation of the Soviet Zone, 1946–1947
• 4. “Springboard for Penetration”: 1947–1949
• 5. “Preventing Roll-up”: Diplomatic Blockade, Free Elections, and the “Battle of Berlin”
• 6. Planning for Rollback in Germany, 1950–1951
• 7. The United States and the Cold Civil War in Germany: Eastern Initiatives and West German “Rollback” Efforts
• 8. Economic Cold War? The United States and Inter-German Trade, 1950–1952
• 9. “Roll Them Out for Keeps”: The United States and the 1953 East German Uprising
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Index
• Series List