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Do not fill this in! ====Further division in the late 1940s==== {{Further|Marshall Plan|Falsifiers of History|Berlin Airlift|Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948}} In January 1947, [[Harry Truman]] appointed General [[George Marshall]] as Secretary of State, scrapped Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) directive 1067 (which embodied the [[Morgenthau Plan]]), and supplanted it with JCS 1779, which decreed that an orderly and prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany."<ref name="beschloss277">{{Harvnb|Beschloss|2003|p=277}}</ref> Officials met with Soviet Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] and others to press for an economically self-sufficient Germany, including a detailed accounting of the industrial plants, goods and infrastructure already removed by the Soviets.<ref name="miller16">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|p=16}}</ref> After five and a half weeks of negotiations, Molotov refused the demands and the talks were adjourned.<ref name="miller16"/> Marshall was particularly discouraged after personally meeting with Stalin, who expressed little interest in a solution to German economic problems.<ref name="miller16"/> The United States concluded that a solution could not wait any longer.<ref name="miller16"/> In a 5 June 1947 speech,<ref name="marshallspeech">Marshall, George C, [[s:The Marshall Plan Speech|''The Marshal Plan Speech'']], 5 June 1947</ref> Marshall announced a comprehensive program of American assistance to all European countries wanting to participate, including the Soviet Union and those of Eastern Europe, called the [[Marshall Plan]].<ref name="miller16"/> Stalin opposed the Marshall Plan. He had built up the [[Eastern Bloc]] protective belt of Soviet-controlled nations on his Western border,<ref name="miller10">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|p=10}}</ref> and wanted to maintain this buffer zone of states combined with a weakened Germany under Soviet control.<ref name="miller11">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|p=11}}</ref> Fearing American political, cultural and economic penetration, Stalin eventually forbade Soviet [[Eastern bloc]] countries of the newly formed [[Cominform]] from accepting [[Marshall Plan]] aid.<ref name="miller16"/> In [[Czechoslovakia]], that required a Soviet-backed [[Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948]],<ref name=trueye>''Airbridge to Berlin'', "Eye of the Storm" chapter</ref> the brutality of which shocked Western powers more than any event so far and set in a motion a brief scare that war would occur and swept away the last vestiges of opposition to the Marshall Plan in the United States Congress.<ref name="miller19">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|p=19}}</ref> Relations further deteriorated when, in January 1948, the [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]] also published a collection of documents titled ''Nazi-Soviet Relations, 1939–1941: Documents from the Archives of The German Foreign Office'', which contained documents recovered from the Foreign Office of [[Nazi Germany]]<ref name="henig67"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Department of State|1948|p=preface}}</ref> revealing Soviet conversations with Germany regarding the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact negotiations|Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]], including its secret protocol dividing eastern Europe,<ref name="roberts97">{{Harvnb|Roberts|2002|p=97}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Department of State|1948|p=78}}</ref> the [[German–Soviet Commercial Agreement (1939)|1939 German-Soviet Commercial Agreement]],<ref name="roberts97"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Department of State|1948|pp=32–77}}</ref> and [[German–Soviet Axis talks|discussions of the Soviet Union potentially becoming the fourth Axis Power]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Churchill|1953|pp=512–524}}</ref> In response, one month later, the Soviet Union published ''[[Falsifiers of History]]'', a Stalin-edited and partially re-written book attacking the West.<ref name="henig67">{{Harvnb|Henig|2005|p=67}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Roberts|2002|p=96}}</ref> After the Marshall Plan, the introduction of a new currency to Western Germany to replace the debased [[Reichsmark]] and massive electoral losses for communist parties, in June 1948, the Soviet Union cut off surface road access to [[Berlin]], initiating the [[Berlin Blockade]], which cut off all non-Soviet food, water and other supplies for the citizens of the non-Soviet sectors of Berlin.<ref name="miller25">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|pp=25–31}}</ref> Because Berlin was located within the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany, the only available methods of supplying the city were three limited air corridors.<ref name="miller6">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|pp=6–7}}</ref> A massive aerial supply campaign was initiated by the United States, Britain, France, and other countries, the success of which caused the Soviets to lift their blockade in May 1949. 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