ABSTRACT
Post-WWII governmental/media interaction on national security was dominated by rapidly increasing hostility between the Soviet Union and its recent Allies, and by Britain’s residual problems as an ex-superpower. From 1945–48 these included violent action by both Arabs and Jews against the British Mandate in Palestine, and against each other; followed by the new State of Israel’s successful defence of its then territory against Arab forces, in a region where Britain still maintained a substantial military presence, especially along the Suez Canal. Despite the wartime collaboration with the UK on atom bombs, the US McMahon Act of 1946 prohibited further exchanges of such information. In 1946 talks between the USA and USSR over the divided Korea broke down. In 1947 the Truman Doctrine on the post-war world was enunciated, followed by the Marshall Plan for rebuilding war-damaged economies, which the USSR (and therefore European countries under its control) opposed; in September 1947 Cominform was founded. The Berlin Airlift, resupplying the West-controlled part of the beleaguered city, lasted from June 1948 to May 1949.
