All these elements appear in The Martian Chronicles, whose stories reflect an earththreatening contest for world power in Bradbury’s time.
The Cold War. The Second World War ended in Europe with Germany’s surrender on May 7, 1945. At the Potsdam Conference, held from July 17 to August 2, 1945, the “Big Three”—the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and Britain—agreed to “demilitarize, de-Nazify and democratize Germany” (Graebner, p. 72). Germany was accordingly divided into Soviet, British, French, and American administrative zones, while the city of Berlin, which sat deep within the Soviet zone, was also placed under joint administration. In September 1946, the Western authorities merged the British, French, and American zones into one territory, that of West Germany; the Soviet zone became East Germany. These divisions would determine the map of Europe until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The division of Europe between the Soviets and the West did not end with Germany.
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