In the aftermath of World War II, Germany was divided into four occupied zones, administered by France, Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Berlin, located within Soviet-controlled East Germany, was similarly divided. By 1948, these allegiances were breaking down, brought to a head during the Berlin Blockade in which the Soviet Union prevented the other Allied countries from entering their segments of the capital. Citizens of West Berlin faced starvation. In response, the Western Allies embarked on the largest humanitarian-aid effort in history, air dropping food, fuel, and raw materials on the city. This standoff was a pivotal moment of the Cold War, underscoring the ideological differences between East and West, and setting the stage for an arms race over the next 40 years. The political tension would be heightened the following summer when the Soviet Union successfully detonated its first atomic test bomb in Kazakhstan. In this poster, the French Communist Party (which favored the U.S.S.R.) suggests that by siding with West Germany during the Berlin Blockade, the French government is risking nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Rather than directly criticizing the United States (which was viewed positively by the general French public after World War II), the poster highlights the further death and destruction that will ensue if France should anger the Soviet Union.