<P> Britain, France, the United States, Canada and other eight western European countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty of April 1949, establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). That August, the first Soviet atomic device was detonated in Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR . Following Soviet refusals to participate in a German rebuilding effort set forth by western European countries in 1948, the US, Britain and France spearheaded the establishment of West Germany from the three Western zones of occupation in April 1949 . The Soviet Union proclaimed its zone of occupation in Germany the German Democratic Republic that October . </P> <P> Media in the Eastern Bloc was an organ of the state, completely reliant on and subservient to the communist party, with radio and television organizations being state - owned, while print media was usually owned by political organizations, mostly by the local communist party . Soviet propaganda used Marxist philosophy to attack capitalism, claiming labor exploitation and war - mongering imperialism were inherent in the system . </P> <P> Along with the broadcasts of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Voice of America to Central and Eastern Europe, a major propaganda effort begun in 1949 was Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, dedicated to bringing about the peaceful demise of the communist system in the Eastern Bloc . Radio Free Europe attempted to achieve these goals by serving as a surrogate home radio station, an alternative to the controlled and party - dominated domestic press . Radio Free Europe was a product of some of the most prominent architects of America's early Cold War strategy, especially those who believed that the Cold War would eventually be fought by political rather than military means, such as George F. Kennan . </P> <P> American policymakers, including Kennan and John Foster Dulles, acknowledged that the Cold War was in its essence a war of ideas . The United States, acting through the CIA, funded a long list of projects to counter the communist appeal among intellectuals in Europe and the developing world . The CIA also covertly sponsored a domestic propaganda campaign called Crusade for Freedom . </P>

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