What was the most important for the development of the cold war?

The
Trueman Doctrine or the Berlin Blockade?

In 1945, the Allies decided to split Germany into four zones of occupation
according to the Postsdam Treaty. The capital, Berlin, was also split into
four zones. The USSR took huge reparations from its zone in eastern
Germany as they had lost 7 million soldiers during the war and demanded
compensation. Another point of the treaty was to set up free elections so
the controlled countries could become democratic, in the USSR controlled
actions, elections were held but were these were not free or fair. They
were rigged to allow communist parties to come to power and expanded
Stalin’s power and this created a barrier between Russia and the West, a
first.

While the USSR concentrated on gaining power and spreading

communism, Britain, France and America tried to improve conditions in
their zones and kept to all points agreed. On June 1948, Britain, France
and America united their zones into a new country called The Federal
Republic of. A few days later on the 23 June 1948, a new currency was
introduced, which was to help trade.

On the 24th, Stalin cut off all rail and road links to west Berlin thus
causing the Berlin Blockade and called his land the German Democratic
Republic. The west saw this as an attempt to starve Berlin into surrender,
so they decided to supply west Berlin by air. The Berlin Blockade lasted
318 days. During this time, 275,000 planes transported 1.5 million tons of
supplies and a plane landed every three minutes at Berlin's Templeh of
airport .47 days before the Berlin Blockade was to reach a year old
Stalin stopped the blockade.

The Berlin Blockade is a very important development in the cold war

because it actually spilt a country and progressed both sides to the brink
of war. The Allies would not give up their land because they feared if they
did then Communism would spread and the Soviets would not give up
their land because it would make them look weak. For almost a year,
neither side would back down and with America in possession of nuclear
weapons and the USSR on the brink of making one, an atomic war was
very much a possibility. The Berlin Blockade is also a very important
development because it was the first time two super powers collided,
leading to the possibility of war between two influential countries both still
recovering from war. The other important about the Berlin Blockade was
how the USA airlifted food and supplies to East Berlin against the wishes
of the Soviets. This activity could have easily triggered another war. The
USSR allowed airlifts to be made, but only because America controlled
atom bombs, but with the Soviets close to having their own, the threat
would not have been so intimidating as they could strike back with equal
effect. So with the eradication of the threat of America ,the Soviet Union
could easily have gone to war against the Allies. In addition, both NATO
and the Warsaw pact creations are directly linked to the blockade; both
side had forces to defend and attack which could lead to a very deadly
war.

America was scared of Europe’s vulnerability and President warned the

American Congress in March 1947, that it as their job to contain
communism, a movement that received the name “Containment” and the
Speech became known as the “Trueman Doctrine”. By 1947, Greece was
one of the few countries in Eastern Europe that hadn't turned communist.
Greece was in the middle of a civil war between its Monarchy and
Communist but was stopped by the aid of the British Army. America
became alarmed by the growth of Soviet power and when the British had
to withdraw troops, President Trueman saw no alternative but to take
over.

The Trueman Doctrine sort to contain communism through containment,

and this was not kept a secret. It was public knowledge that America
wanted to stop communism so by declaring containment, the Soviets
would have felt threatened and would be distrusting of the Allies. This
would lead to strained relations between the two and the mistrust could
grow and starting point of a war.

In addition, the Trueman Doctrine was the main cause that led to the
Marshall Plan. In June 1947, General George Marshall made a visit to
Europe to see what was needed. He came away thinking Europe was
about to turn Communist. Marshall and Truman asked Congress for $17
billion to fund the Marshall Plan help the Europe economy thus stopping
countries becoming communist . The aid was even offered to countries in
the Soviet Union but none took it. The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan
are both important because they both successfully helped contain
communism. Both plans were an attempt help unstable and persuadable
countries from turning to communism thus expanding the Soviet Union. If
these border countries in Europe were stable they wouldn't have to Russia
for aid. Marshall Aid provided assistance and allowed communism to be
contained. Without the Doctrine that led to the Marshall Plan, communism
might have spread even further and toppled democracy in the western
countries.

In conclusion, I believe that the Berlin Blockade was the more important
development of the cold war because it caused two super powers to come
to the brink of war and could have changed the nature of the war into a
nuclear one.