Berlin Airlift Research Paper

After the conclusion of World War II, the city of Berlin was divided into two sections: East and West Berlin. The western section was divided between the three allies while the eastern portion was under Soviet control. Western Berlin had become a small hold on capitalism in a sea of Marxist communism. On 24 June 1948, the Soviet Union cut off all ground routes into the western portion of Berlin. This left approximately 2.5 million Berlin citizens without the United States supplies they had been receiving. It would also leave the roughly 6,500 western troops without ground-level support, surrounded by 16,000 soviets (Owens 70).

The Berlin Airlift was an important historical event. At the end of World War II, the United States, Great Britain, France, and Russia took control of Germany, splitting it into four zones. The U.S.S.R. took control of the East. The U.S., Britain, and France took control of zones in the West which they later combined into the Trizone. The capital city of Berlin was located in the section controlled by the Soviets, so the four powers agreed to split Belin into two sections. Just like the rest of the country, the Western Allies took control of West Berlin and the Soviets took control of East Berlin. Because the city was in the middle of the territory controlled by the Soviets, the city of West Berlin was only accessible by selected roads and railway lines. The Soviets set up checkpoints

The United States had only a few options and they were not looking great. They could attempt to resolve this diplomatically, but that could take more time than was available. A military pullout from Berlin could lead to discredit the United States and leave Berlin to fall completely under Soviet control (Owens 70). The United States military governor of Berlin at the time was General Lucas Clay. General Clay was told that going by

With the Marshall plan helping to rebuild European industries and cities, Britain and France started to concentrate on reforming the currency of West Berlin. Trying to forestall that development Soviet Union imposed a blockade on all railroads, highways and rivers leading to West Berlin. Without thinking twice president Truman airlifted 2.5 million tons, one ton per person, of food and fuel over the blockade which later persuaded Stalin, the Soviets party leader to take the blockade down.

After World War II, the country of Germany was divided into East and West and so was the capital of Berlin. The city of Berlin was very important to the allies as well as the Soviets. The Berlin Blockade consisted of many transportation routes being shut down or blocked. Although the Soviets attempted to drive the allies out of Berlin by starvation, the allies devised a plan to counteract the Soviets movements and save the trapped West Berliners inside with a daring operation named Operation Vittles. The Berlin Airlift was a major operation by air to bring supplies into the desperate West Berliners.

They started to bring more goods by air then they were by ground. Now stalin is was starting get annoyed because the allies are trying to keep containment while Stalin is trying to spread communism. So he decided to build a wall in between to make sure the people of east berlin don't get influence by the allies and what they are doing. The United States launched “Operation Vittles” on June 26, with the United Kingdom and two days later with “Operation Plainfare.” Despite the desire for a peaceful resolution to the standoff, the United States also sent to the United Kingdom B-29 bombers, which were capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The beginning of the airlift proved difficult and Western diplomats asked the Soviets to seek a diplomatic solution to the impasse. The Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the Deutschmark from West Berlin. Even though the Allies rebuffed the Soviet offer, West Berlin’s position remained precarious, and the standoff had political consequences on the ground. In September 1948, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), the German Communist Party of the Soviet zone of occupation, marched on the Berlin City Council and forced it to adjourn. Fearing that the Western Allies might halt the airlift and cede West Berlin to the Soviets, 300,000 West Berliners gathered at the Reichstag to show

The Soviet Union was becoming increasingly more and more worried about the influence of the West in Germany. It was convinced that Germany’s neutrality was vastly important to the security of Russia. In response to the talks on March 6, the Soviets temporarily restricted the movement of Western military supplies

The containment of the Soviet Union in the aftermath of the World War II was a main American policy (261). The Western European and North America allies saw the Soviet domination in the regions as a threat to their democracy. European countries struggled for the need for economic reconstruction, and during containment it became useful in the effort to aid recovery (260). Postwar Germany was a special problem (261) . There had been a division into U.S, Soviet Union, British, and French zones of occupation, with the former German capital of Berlin (itself divided into four zones), near the center of the Soviet zone (261). When consolidated federal state was created from their zones by the western powers, Stalin responded by Blockade of Berlin

The Berlin Airlift was Britain’s and the United States response to the Soviets blockade of all rail, road and water routes and communications with the West. After World War Two, Germany was split into sectors by Britain, the United States and Soviet Russia; Berlin was in the Soviet occupation zone, with only the west division of Berlin under the West’s control.[1] The Airlift took place from June 24, 1948 to September 30, 1949, even though the blockade ended on May 12, 1949. The airlift delivered 2,323,738 tons of food, fuel, machinery and other supplies to the people of West Berlin.[2] The Berlin airlift demonstrated to the World the Allies’ willingness to stand up to the Soviets and gave birth to such folk heroes as Colonel Gail Halvorsen,

The Berlin Blockade certainly confirmed the intensity to which the Soviet Union would pursue its own policy objectives. It followed a series of complicated events that further broke down the possibility of negotiating. The Soviets were using the police to make the role of the elected city officials, who would not bow to Moscow, impossible and disrupted campaigns.16 The United States wanted to move forward with making Germany independent and self sufficient, but the Soviets proved impossible demanding complete control of issues like currency. This led the Western powers to discuss policy in their zones jointly in London without the Soviet Union. The very thought of an independent Western Germany was opposite to the Soviets goals. All this culminated

On May 8th, 1945, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel surrendered the German armed forces to the allies in Berlin, thus ending the war for Germany. The German people were then confronted by a situation never before experienced. All of Germany was occupied by foreign armies, their cities and infrastructure lay in ruins, and millions were homeless and starving. Following the unilateral surrender by Germany, the country was divided into four zones, governed by each of the allied powers: Britain, France, the U.S. and the Soviet Union. As diplomacy between the West and the Soviet Union began to deteriorate, each zone became more self-sufficient and independent of the others. Tensions between the West and the Soviet Union also began to rise as it became apparent that the two super powers, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. would vie for dominance throughout the world, each seeking to spread its ideology and stop the spread of the other’s. The first real exacerbation of this conflict came when the Soviet Union blockaded the divided city of Berlin, which lay in is zone of control. The U.S.S.R. wanted to test the Western resolve to hold Berlin and maintain control. The response the U.S. chose was to keep Berlin supplied by air, through constant resupply by aircraft, a feat never before accomplished. The airlift lasted for nearly eleven months and kept the Western controlled sectors of Berlin adequately supplied, and showed the Soviet Union the U.S.’s resolve to hold out against the spread of

In Peter Carlson’s article “When Khrushchev came to Tinseltown,” Carlson describes the circus that unfolded around Nikita Khrushchev’s visit to the United States for a summit meeting at Camp David. For several years before Khrushchev’s arrival, mounting tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union were growing, and this summit was an opportunity to discuss solutions to the crisis in Berlin. After World War II, Germany was divided into the four allied occupation zones. The Soviet Union negotiated the Eastern part of the country, and the U.S, France and Great Britain occupied the Western portion of the country. Khrushchev wanted the allied forces out of Berlin, but United States, U.K, and France decided to remain in West Berlin, instead of withdrawing as Khrushchev had insisted. Our welcome to Khrushchev should have been strictly business and a chance to mend the distrust between the two nations.

For 462 days during 1948 and 1949 the city of Berlin was kept alive by an airlift of Allied aircraft bring food and other essentials from the west. By the end of the relief action, 77 people lost their lives in service of the airlift, paying the ultimate price for the freedom of others, which contain41English, 31 Americans and five Berliners. Even before the end of the airlift, discussions over creating a memorial to the victims of the blockade were taking place in West Berlin.

The Berlin blockade was created as a result of “violation by the Governments of the United States of America, Great Britain, and France of agreed decision taken by the powers in regard to Germany and Berlin.” This violation was “the carrying out of a separate currency reform, in the introduction of a special currency of Berlin and in the policy of dismemberment in Germany,” which included the “designation of a separate Government for the western zones.” Russian Chief representative, Marshall Sokolovsky walked out of the Allied Control Council meeting and failed to schedule another meeting the next month. “On June 23 the Russians introduced their own currency for Berlin,” the East Mark to counter the Western currency, the West Mark which was introduced the next day. The new West Mark was given the same value as the East Mark, “leaving the door open for negotiations.”

They wanted to drive The United States of America, The United Kingdom and France out of the city. So, in 1948, what came to be known as the Soviet Blockade was an event that aimed to starve the western Allies out of the city. The United States could have retreated and started a war. But they did not. In fact, they themselves sent food to the city of Berlin and wanted to bring it back to normal. This is because they did not want Soviet Union to gain full control over the city. They could not see this part of the city turning totally communist. This effort, known as the Berlin Airlift, lasted for more than a year and delivered more than 2.3 million tons of food, fuel and other goods to West Berlin. 300,000 Berliners demonstrated for the international airlift to continue. In May 1949, The Soviets lifted the blockade, permitting the resumption of Western shipments to Berlin.