in any case the French were the primary obstacles to the successful implementation of the Postdam accords. Less is known about Russian thinking on the question of Germany, though it is assumed to have been in evolution over the period in question. In any case, relations between the West and the Soviet Union continued to deteriorate after the war with disputes over atomic energy policies and policies in the Near East, eastern Europe, and Asia. One of the major splits was over Germany (Ireland, 1981, pp. 18-19).
World War II brought Russia into the affairs of Europe as had never occurred before. Hitler's Germany left the center of Europe a vacuum into which the Soviet armies had marched. For the first time in history, Russians occupied Berlin and Vienna, and of greater significance was the fact that the United States and Great Britain had acknowledged in the Yalta Treaty a Soviet zone of occupation in Germany that included Prussia, Saxony, and Thuringia. This allowed Russian forces to approach within 75 mil
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