Drawing the Line
The American Decision to Divide Germany, 1944–1949

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.

Carolyn Woods Eisenberg (Author)

9780521627177, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 March 1998

540 pages
23.3 x 15.1 x 2.7 cm, 0.72 kg

'The work by Carolyn Eisenberg is an important contribution to the 'revisionist history' that mant claim has been discredited by the demise of the USSR … The analysis is very well documented, partly by means of archival material … serves as a valuable corrective to the triumphalist 'post-revisionist' historiography.' NOD and Conversion

In this fresh and challenging study of the origins of the Cold War, Professor Eisenberg traces the American role in dividing post-war Germany. Drawing upon many original documentary sources, she examines the Allied meeting on the Elbe, follows the Great Powers through their confrontation in Berlin, and culminates with the creation of the West German state in the fall of 1949. In contrast to many works in the field, the book argues that the partition of Germany was fundamentally an American decision. US 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 US-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.

1. Plans
2. Making peace
3. The limits of reform: the US zone
4. A fragile friendship
5. The Russian challenge
6. Bizonal beginnings
7. The doctors deliberate
8. Marshall's medicine
9. A separate state
10. Cold War Germany
11. Winning
Conclusion: the American decision to divide Germany.

Subject Areas: Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], European history [HBJD]