Essay on The Failure of The Berlin Blockade

At the long awaited end of World War 2, Germany was divided into two pieces, one for capitalists and the other for communists. Berlin, the stronghold city of Germany at the time, was split into two pieces as well, one part for capitalists and one part for communists, all separated by the infamous Berlin wall. West Berlin was a pro-american island in a soviet sea, and when the soviet union decided to blockade any shipments into West Berlin, the United States had to take immediate action. America shipped in supplies to West Berlin by air! If it hadnt been for America and its allies supporting West Berlin, it could have easily been conquered by the surrounding communists. The Berlin Airlift displayed the fight that America put into containing communism and how hard they were willing to work to keep the red water as far away from them as possible. These diplomatic tactics saved Berlin and eventually led to the Berlin walls’ downfall, allowing the city to come together and live peacefully. This was one of the first major steps in stopping the spread of communism through

Germany and the capital, Berlin, was split at the end of WWII. The East Berlin and Germany were controlled by the Soviets and West Berlin and Germany was controlled by the US, France, and Britain. Since West Berlin was completely surrounded by communism, Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, decided to prevent any shipments (including food) from going into West Berlin (Doc. B) in an attempt to starve them out. They created a blockade. When the US and its allies found out, they sent planes over to get the shipments and take them to the West Berliners which provided over two million people with supplies ranging from food to coal for nearly over a year (Doc. B).

The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall by Mary Elise Sarotte explains the causes and events leading up the opening of the Berlin Wall. By first describing the state of Eastern Europe, Sarotte leads the reader into descriptive chapters about the people and events that lead up to November 9, 1989. The story of the opening of the Berlin Wall, or the Iron Curtain as some call it, is compelling told by using a profusion of sources and actions that all play a major role in this watershed moment in history.

This investigation will explore the question: To what extent did the Berlin Airlift of 1948–1949 affect US-Soviet relations during the course of the Cold War? The years of 1948 and 1949 will be focused in this investigation, but some pre- 1948 and post- 1949 will be used as support.

“What happens to Berlin happens to Germany; what happens to Germany, happens to Europe.” These were the words of Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet Foreign Minister from 1939 through 1949. The Soviet Blockade of Berlin was a direct challenge to Western attempts to combine their zones of occupation, and it threatened to unleash World War III. The Western Allies’ response to this blockade was a massive airlift, supplying over two million people in West Berlin with food, water, medicine, and other supplies. The Berlin Airlift was an important historical event which occurred just three years after the conclusion of World War II in Europe, and it had many complex causes and far-reaching consequences.

American and British leaders prevented the spread of communism to Berlin by means of patient and strategic actions against the Soviet Union. This strategy is shown in Document B, where it shows a map of divided Germany. The Soviet Union hoped to take Germany under its empire by cutting off all aid from other countries. this became known as the Berlin blockade. the U.S. refused to let the USSR gain Germany and as a result America and Britain airlifted supplies to the people of Berlin. No matter what the weather, they airlifted supplies. this showed the world and the Soviet Union what America was willing to do to stop communism.

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.

Berlin Blockade - The Berlin Blockade was an attempt in 1948 by the Soviet Union to limit the ability of France, Great Britain and the United States to travel to their sectors of Berlin, which lay within Russian-occupied East Germany.

This is the first major episode of containment. Stalin believed that the Marshall Plan was expanding American influence. That the United States and its allies had big chuck of control of Berlin. Stalin had opposing views with those Western allies as they undermined him. Actions of the Western Allies led Stalin to be frustrated and threatened that Germany would be invaded the Soviet Union again. So, Stalin called the Berlin Blockade. It was a response to this pressure. The purpose of the Berlin Blockade was to block Western Allies railway, road, and canal access to sectors of Berlin, that were under Western Control. This caused a chaos in Berlin and the population was low on supplies. The Western Allies responded with the Berlin Airlift. It was considered an episode of containment. It was supposed to save West Berlin from communism and stop the spread of communism. It happened from June 1948 to May 1949. The United States and its allies were flying roughly a year to West Berlin to drop supplies. They flew over 200,000 flights in one year and provided more than 5,000 tons of the

The Soviet Union expressed a desire to isolate Berlin and restrain political unification in West Germany in order to discourage the Western powers from enforcing any hold over the land. However, in the second meeting of their London conference, the Western powers chose to proceed with their currency reform. The Soviet Union also finally enacted a full-scale blockade on June 24 by closing the railroads and the Autobahn, Germany’s main expressway connecting West Berlin and West Germany, as well as shutting off the power from the main plant in East Berlin. The communist power set up a meeting with its allies the following day and issued the Warsaw Declaration in retaliation to the decisions made at the London conference. Western powers expressed concern towards West Berliners, the victims of the Soviet Union’s actions, because their lives relied heavily on the resources they received through the blocked routes. The Western Powers then worked to devise a way to aid them.

During the events of the Vietnam War and the Cold War, another perfect example of containment was performed by the Soviet Union in Berlin, hence the name The Berlin Blockade. The Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. By 1948, the Western allies commenced moving towards combining their zones in only Western Germany into an independent German state. As part of that process, the United States, France and Britain tried to reform the currency in different regions of Germany they occupied in this case Berlin, in order to establish economic recovery which was very difficult to do. However, the new currency, over which the Soviet Union would have no control, was also to become legal in the Western regions of Berlin. Inside the United States there was some sentiment for accepting the Soviet logic since that many of them were reluctant to risk a war over

One of the first major conflicts of the Cold War was the Berlin Blockade. It happened as a result of the United States, Britain, and France wanting to combine their occupation zones into a West German state (Findley, 2011). In response, the Soviets started a blockade of all rail, road, and water communications into West Berlin on June 24, 1948 (Brit). Two days later the United States and Britain organized an airlift to keep the city supplied (Findley, 2011). In July, the Soviets raised the stakes by increasing the

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 original conflict that led to the Berlin blockade arose after World War II. As early as 1947, growing problems between western democracy (United States, Britain et al.) and communism (the Soviet Union), started to take definite shape as the

Being surrounded by East Germany left the Western-occupied sections of Berlin very vulnerable, however. In June 1948, Allied efforts to produce a unified currency for West Germany triggered alarm in the Soviet Union, and officials decided to block all access to Berlin, in the hopes of forcing the Allies to give them more control of the city. Essentially, the Soviet Union planned to starve the city in order to coerce the West into capitulating.