page_title: East Germany
section_title: United States as primary threat
hierarchical_section_title: East Germany / Foreign policy / United States as primary threat
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Besuch Ho Chi Minhs bei Pionieren, bei Berlin Zentralbild/Sturm 28.7.1957 Ho Chi Minh besuchte LPG. MTS und Kinderferienlager. Der zu einem Staatsbesuch in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik weilende Präsident der Demokratischen Republik Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, besuchte mit seiner Begleitung am 28.7.1957 die Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft "Erster Mai" in Tempelfelde (Kreis Bernau), die Maschinen-Traktoren-Station in Werneuchen bei Bernau und das Pionierzeltlager "Helmuth Just" am Wukensee bei Biesenthal. UBZ.: Ein Rundgang mit Präsident Ho Chi Minh (Mitte) durch das Pionierzeltlager. Information added by Wikimedia users.English: Ho Chi Minh visited LPG, MTS and children's summer camp Staying for a state visit in the German Democratic Republic, the President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, and his entourage on 28 July 1957 visited the Agricultural Production Cooperative "Erster Mai" [First of May] in Tempelfelde (Bernau district), the machine and tractor station in Werneuchen near Bernau and the "Helmuth Just" pioneer camp at lake Wukensee near Beisenthal.
context_page_description: East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic, was a socialist republic that existed from 1949 to 1990, the period when the eastern portion of Germany was part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. Commonly described as a communist state in English usage, it described itself as a socialist "workers' and peasants' state". It consisted of territory that was administered and occupied by Soviet forces following the end of World War II—the Soviet occupation zone of the Potsdam Agreement, bounded on the east by the Oder–Neisse line. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin but did not include it and West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the GDR.
  The GDR was established in the Soviet zone while the Federal Republic of Germany, commonly referred to as West Germany, was established in the three western zones. A satellite state of the Soviet Union, Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948 and the GDR began to function as a state on 7 October 1949. However, Soviet forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War.
context_section_description: The East German state propaganda promoted an "anti-imperialist" line that was reflected in all its media and all the schools.  This line followed Lenin's theory of imperialism as the highest and last stage of capitalism, and Dimitrov's theory of fascism as the dictatorship of the most reactionary elements of financial capitalism. Popular reaction to these measures was mixed, and Western media penetrated the country both through cross-border television and radio broadcasts from West Germany and from the U.S. supported network Radio Free Europe. The East German state propaganda promoted love for Russia, the "great Socialist Soviet Union" helping "democratic forces" dismantle the "monopoly capitalists." East German propagandists also had a strong anti-U.S. line in support of Russian imperialism. East German propagandists called West German politicians "lackeys of Anglo-Americans." Ironically, East German, as well as the communist propaganda departments of the other Soviet satellite states, accused the US of "imperialism" and "warmongering" when their nations were under the occupation and political control of Russia, a country that ruled the third largest empire in history under the House of Romanov.
  Dissidents, particularly professionals, sometimes fled to West Germany, which was relatively easy before the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
caption: North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh with East German Young Pioneers, 1957
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