<P> In Greece, during a civil war involving the communist - led partisan movement ELAS - EAM, British Special Forces terminated arms supplies to the ELA - ELAM, pro-monarchist armed forces were strengthened . On the political front, Americans, with British encouragement, attempted to dismantle ELAS - EAM socialist structures in the countryside, and an anti-communist swing gradually occurred . </P> <P> Western Allies conducted meetings in Italy in March 1945 with German representatives to forestall a takeover by Italian communist resistance forces in northern Italy and to hinder the potential there for post-war influence of the civilian communist party . The affair caused a major rift between Stalin and Churchill, and in a letter to Roosevelt on 3 April Stalin complained that the secret negotiations did not serve to "preserve and promote trust between our countries ." </P> <P> Relations further deteriorated when, in January 1948, the 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 revealing Soviet conversations with Germany regarding the Molotov--Ribbentrop Pact, including its secret protocol dividing eastern Europe, the 1939 German--Soviet Commercial Agreement, and discussions of the Soviet Union potentially becoming the fourth Axis Power . In response, one month later, the Soviet Union published Falsifiers of History, this book, edited and partially re-written by Stalin, attacked the West . </P> <P> The first major crisis in the emerging Cold War was the Berlin Blockade of 1948--49 . Historian Carol K. Fink argues that this crisis, "occupies a special place in Cold War historiography, as an emblem of Soviet aggressiveness and Anglo - American resistance ." After setbacks to Soviet plans through the Marshall Plan, the successful introduction of a new currency to West Germany, and massive electoral losses for Communist parties, Moscow decided to cut off land access to West Berlin by rail and highway, thereby initiating the Berlin Blockade. Because Berlin was located within the Soviet - occupied zone of Germany, the only available methods of supplying the city were three limited air corridors . </P>

In which region did the cold war have its origins