1. -190500207010EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! –EBS NEWS: THE NEWS OF THE DECADE-<br />11430003395345The division of Germany and Berlin has for years now been sweeping the nation with great controversy. Because of the countries’s significant influence around the world and economic military strength, the USA and Soviet Union are considered superpowers. The United States and the Soviet Union emerged from the Second World War stronger than before they entered it. They had mobilized their vast resources for maximum effect: building more weapons and placing more citizens under arms than ever before in either country’s history. They had also expanded their territorial control and influenced far beyond previous limits. Both the Soviet Union and the United States practised expansionism* and established their spheres of influence until the end of the Cold War. The countries that the Western Allies had liberated from Nazi Germany fell under the American influence, and the countries that the Soviet Union had liberated remained under the Soviet influence. Both superpowers responded to their fears with containment. They attempted to avoid other countries’ expansionism by means other than war. Stalin saw postwar Soviet expansionism not only as a way to “command the world economy” (just as he had predicted in 1927), but also for historical and geographical reasons as mentioned previously in this article. By 1961, Berlin had become the hotbed of Cold War tension!<br />*Editor’s note: Expansionisn is the attempt to enlarge territorial and ideological influence beyond a country’s borders and allies. <br />Editorial: A comment on the Division of Berlin and Germany<br />As an American, I for one understand the immense amount of grief this division caused between the Soviet Union and United States. For two countries both seeking power within Germany, the tension became widespread and their ideologies divided the country. This event was the initial cause of the Cold War, and led up to the major development of tension between the countries. Either of the superpowers could have chosen to work together, but their innate desire for control and power stopped their potential cooperation. Working for their own good and their inability to look past their power struggles sparked an ongoing strain between the two superpowers. The borders that separated the Soviet-Communist countries and Democratic-Capitalist countries became increasingly important to both Americans and their allies and the Soviet Union. These borders served to divide people by their ideological differences, as well as political and economic differences. In a now divided Germany, where many countries shared an influence, the importance of the borders increased as tension grew between the superpowers. Not only did the event of the division cause significant amounts of stress between two very powerful countries who could have combined their assets in a positive way, it lead up to an extremely unnecessary war.<br />Bibliography BIBLIOGRAPHY Grade 12- The Cold War. (2008). Retrieved April 6, 2010, from the Internet: http://www.sahistory.org.za/classroom/grade12/1_1_4.htm<br />