Pros And Cons Of The Berlin Airlift

The Cuban Missile Crisis forever marked 1962 as the year the world almost witnessed a nuclear war. The Soviet Union, Cuba, and the United States were all teetering on the edge of a cliff that was crumbling from the weight of fear, tension, and secrecy. It also marked the official end of Americans innocent belief that they were safe in the glow of Lady Liberty’s torch. Yet amidst the dark shadow of nuclear threat one American president rose to this challenge and proved that peace through strength is the best strategy.

The Berlin airlift initially started with the division of Germany into four sections amongst major powers, including the US, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union after WWII. The United States, Britain, and France united to make West Berlin, while East Berlin belonged to the Soviet Union. On June 27, 1948, Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union decided to blockade any shipments into West Berlin in an attempt to weaken and overthrow it. With West Berlin surrounded by communism and no source of food because of the blockade, they saw no other choice but to surrender, that is until the US and its allies stepped in to help. The US and its allies supported West Berliners through airlifts, this consisted of supplies from food to coal being flown in to over two million people. On May 12, 1949, Stalin discards of the blockade, this left the nation and Harry Truman thrilled. The Berlin Airlift is a good example of containment because the United States was triumphant in keeping West Berlin from being overthrown by communist East

After World War II, Germany were divided into four occupied sectors. As shown on the map, the city of Berlin was divided and each dominated by a sector of the Allied Powers: Soviet Union, United States, Britain and France (Doc 3a). East Berlin was controlled under a communist rule by the Soviet Union, while West Berlin was governed under a democratic government. Winston Churchill additionally enhanced the idea of the Iron Curtain being that it represented an invisible line that separated the democratic countries of Western Europe from the communist countries of Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall to restrained people in East Berlin from fleeing to West Berlin. East Germans constructed the Berlin Wall to formally split East and West Berlin (Doc 3b). The Soviet Union denied access to transportation, food and water. The Berlin airlift was an event in which the United States, Britain, and France delivered goods to the people of West Berlin for 11 months after Stalin set up a

Despite its beginnings as a logistical nightmare for the aircrews and aviators, the Berlin Airlift was effective in the role of containing the spread of communism into Berlin, while ensuring the survival of capitalism for its millions of citizens.

The Cuban Missile Crisis is one of the most impactful events in the Cold War due to the effect that it had after it happened. The effect of the Cuban Missile Crisis created many changes on the direct and indirect relations between the United States and Soviet Union. The Cuban Missile Crisis spanned 13 days in October 1962 that almost brought the world into a nuclear war. This all began when a United States U-2 spy plane Cuba took photos of Soviet SS-4 medium range ballistic missiles getting setup for the ability to launch.This caused the U.S leaders to be thrown into a panic because the Cuban Government had very strong ties with the Soviet Union who are the United States biggest enemies at the time. Another reason the United States was very fearful is because the coast of Cuba is only 90 miles of the coast of Florida. When President John F Kennedy was told of the missile threat in Cuba he immediately called a meeting with his closest advisors on how to react. There were many ideas on how to react to the missiles, some of Kennedy’s advisors wanted to invade Cuba, others wanted to send a warning to the Soviet Union. JFK finally decided to send a naval blockade to cuba for the purpose of stopping more supplies reaching the Cuban military from Russia. The blockade even though the blockade did not include attacking anyone, it was still seen as an act of aggression by the Soviet Union. The U.S was

Following World War II the alliance between the U.S., Britain and The Soviet Union began to unravel as the USSR pushed for the spread of communism which threatened America and the free world. For the next few decades, America’s leaders would need to strategically combat the expansion of the iron curtain and communism. Issues broke out all over the world but the most significant “battles” were that of Berlin, Korea and Cuba. The U.S. contained communism in Berlin by remaining persistent, in Korea by battling, and in Cuba by taking caution.

Things like giving money to other countries to aid them helped with this (Doc. #2). Stalin tried to force them out of Berlin by blocking all of the roads and things like railways that could lead into the city. President Truman had two difficult thoughts to choose from. Either order tanks to break through or leave West Berlin alone. He actually took a more courageous choice and began to send supplies in cargo planes. This was very important to everyone involved because the citizens were being treated like prisoners. They weren’t allowed to leave. The Berlin Airlift was important because it gave people the supplies they needed and it showed people that the United States would do what they needed to do. The citizens of Berlin would actually help in aid of this for extra ration portions (At the end,

Despite its beginnings as a logistical nightmare for the aircrews and aviators, the Berlin Airlift was extremely effective in the role of containing the spread of communism into Berlin, while ensuring the survival of capitalism for millions of its citizens.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the only devastating event in U.S. to ever bring the country into DEFCON-2. Ever since World War 2, the U.S. and the Soviet Union have been rivals(Jeffery, Riley, 4). The Soviets later aligned themselves with the small country of Cuba. It is a small piece of land in enemy territory, but it is very important to them because they have to protect their allies at all times. For this reason, The USSR placed missiles in Cuba to keep them prepared for an invasion. In 1962, The two huge superpowers brought the Cold War to a nuclear crisis in Cuba which led to DEFCON-2, the closest point to a nuclear war(The Choices Program)

The Berlin Airlift is one of the most important moments in the Cold War. It was an operation created by the United Kingdom and the United States to supply the people in western Berlin food and supplies because they were trapped by the Soviet Union. At the end of World War ll, the allies divided Germany into two parts. The west part of Germany was under the control of the United States, United Kingdom, and France. The eastern part of Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union. The capital city of Germany, Berlin, was also divided. The western section of Berlin was controlled by the British, the US, and France. The eastern section of the city was the Soviet Union.

The Berlin Wall had a major impact on humanity’s views on how society should be ruled. Berlin is the capital of Germany. After the ending of WWII, Berlin was split up into East Berlin, and West Berlin. East Berlin was communist, suffered from the repressions of the Communist Party. West Berlin had a better lifestyle, and had financial aid from the United States. From the years between nineteen forty-nine to nineteen sixty-one, approximately 2.5 million people from East Berlin escaped to West Berlin. This toll included skilled workers, professionals, and intellectuals. Because of the loss of these people, the economy in East Berlin was threatened. On August twelve-thirteen, nineteen sixty-one, the Berlin was built in order to stop the people of East Berlin from fleeing. The Berlin wall was a major point during the Cold War, and many opposed it. It gave another reason to detest communism.

The United States responded with the Berlin Airlift: for eleven months, American aircrafts dropped supplies into Berlin. The Berlin Airlift demonstrated the economic strength and efficiency of the United States. In 1949, the blockade was ended and Germany was divided into two different countries: the Federal republic of Germany in the west and the German Democratic Republic in the east. Both sides created economic and military pacts: Marshall Plan (1947) and NATO (1949) for the western bloc, Comecon (1949) and the Warsaw Pact (1955). The two superpowers never fought directly due to threat of the nuclear weapons that they both had by 1949. The moment of maximum tension is the Korean war in 1950, when American soldiers were deployed in South

The Berlin Blockade was meant to deny the access of food, water and medical supplies into West Berlin. Stalin believed that this would drive the Western powers out of West Berlin and that he was able to gain control over the whole of Berlin. This left the West with a dilemma, if they abandoned Berlin it would show weakness and lack of commitment, which Stalin could use advantage of and try taking over Germany; if they attacked they could provoke a nuclear war. The solution was a massive airlift that took over supplies into West Berlin to keep it intact. If Stalin shot the planes down he would have provoked a nuclear war as well. The West also placed an embargo on certain soviet goods which pressured her economy and therefore Stalin had to lift the blockade and entrance was allowed once again. This was a clear defeat towards the Soviet Union and the anger and the tension towards the West

The Cuban Missile Crisis had a huge impact on society even years after it was resolved because the incident had brought our nation and the world so close to the brink of nuclear war. Before the Cuban Missile Crisis had occurred, many other factors had been piling up and building undesirable tensions between many countries. Along the way new allies and enemies were made causing more stress to the Cold War. The new bonds that formed after Cuba was taken over by Fidel Castro pushed nuclear war to the very edge.

Dear Mr.Hawkins , my former, history teacher, I know you are set in your idea that the destruction of the Berlin Wall was the turning point of WWll, I strongly disagree. Even though there were significant, life-changing, humanitarian efforts made by the U.S, the Berlin Airlift was one of the greatest of these efforts. This was one of the strongest humanitarian efforts made because America supplied food for the starving people of West Berlin, granted them the gift of hope when there was nothing left to hope for, and assisted every step of the way until the terrible separation between East Berlin and West Berlin. When the Soviets took their share of Germany with France, Britain, and the U.S., the Soviets made the choice to separate Germany into eastern and western divisions. This was done so that they could extend communism into a war-torn Europe. After World War Two, there wouldn’t have been any better timing. The war gave them an open door to start communism all over again because no one would’ve been able to stop whatever came in their path.