MAP 24.1 The Cold War in Europe, 1945–1955 In 1946, the four major victorious wartime allies divided Germany and Berlin into distinct sectors, leading to increasing conflict. Between 1949 and 1955, the descent of what Winston Churchill called the “iron curtain” of communism and the creation of rival security pacts headed by the United States and the Soviet Union hardened these postwar divisions into a prolonged Cold War.