Drawing the Line: The American Decision to Divide Germany, 1944-1949 - Hardcover

Carolyn Eisenberg

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521392128 ISBN 13: 9780521392129

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Synopsis

Eisenberg argues that the United States made the decision to divide Germany, and that this was the key development in the emergence of the Cold War.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In this fresh and challenging study of the origins of the Cold War, Professor Eisenberg traces the American role in dividing postwar Germany. Drawing on many original documentary sources, she examines the Allied meeting on the Elbe, follows the Great Powers through their confrontation in Berlin, and ends with the creation of the West German state in the fall of 1949. Unlike many works in the field, this book argues that the partition of Germany was fundamentally an American decision. U.S. policy makers chose partition, mobilized reluctant West Europeans behind that approach, and, by excluding the Soviets from West Germany, contributed to the isolation of East Germany and the emergence of the post-World War II U.S.-Soviet rivalry. The volume casts new light on the Berlin blockade, demonstrating that the United States rejected United Nations mediation and relied on its nuclear monopoly as the means of protecting its German agenda.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521392128
• ISBN 13: 9780521392129
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 538