What Is The Cause Of The Berlin Crisis?

“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.

In President Reagan’s speech regarding the Berlin wall entitled “Address at Brandenburg Gate” delivered on June 12th, 1987, Reagan takes the position as the rhetor with the sole purpose of convincing the city of Berlin to unite and get rid of the wall separating the city in two. The wall is described by Reagan multiple times and is described to be both a physical and non-physical wall. Most of the city is separated by the physical wall and those that aren’t are heavily guarded and prevent travel to the other side. The discourse was intended to not only be heard by the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, but by most of Europe and North America. The exigency in Reagan’s

In 1948 Berliners were caught between starvation on one side, and Communism on the other. Westerners feared,

February 1945: Yalta Conference: The Yalta conference was meeting held by the leaders of the 3 most powerful allied countries: the US, USSR, and Great Britain. They were there to discuss reparations in Germany. They all agreed that Germany should have a military power. Stalin, however, wanted $20 billion from Germany to pay for reparations, but FDR and Churchill disagreed. At the end of the conference, they all agree to divide Germany into four zones. The US, USSR, Great Britain, and France will each get a zone. This also led to the division of Berlin. The Yalta conference left Berlin and Germany divided until the end of the Cold War.

Helping the Berliners meet their basic physical needs by delivering food, water, and medical supplies. Also by boosting the morale of the people and gaining their trust in democracy. The effects of the Berlin Airlift on the United States helped them gain the trust of the American people. During 1949 the United States successfully contained the spread of communism only in Berlin which led to the U.S.S.R. lifting the ground blockade into East Berlin. The U.S. goals of containment were achieved without breaking the values.

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

After the end of World War Two in 1945, the Western Powers, which included the United States of America, France and Great Britain, entered a period of military and political tension between them and the Soviet Union, despite the tentative alliance during World War Two. The first major international crisis of the Cold War started on June 24, 1948, when the Soviet Union tried to “starve the Western-held sectors of Berlin into submission” and imposed the Berlin Blockade, by cutting off all water, rail, and road connections to West Berlin, where the allies occupied. In response to this, the United States and Great Britain resolved to sustain and keep Berlin supplied by air, or through flight, which soon became known as the Berlin Airlift (Harris). This creates the question of, To what extent did the Berlin Airlift of 1948–1949 affect US-Soviet relations during the course of the Cold War?

The tensions begin to mount after Germany and Berlin were divided among the victorious countries of the Allies and three major power blocs formed. The countries that had been newly formed in the

The person I choose for this topic is Ronald Reagan, he is a big part on how the Cold War ended. Russia, as everyone knows, has always been competitive with the U.S.A, the two countries always go back and forth with each other to be the first at everything. Now the Berlin Wall had been there for some time, ever since 1961. The communist government of Eastern Germany created the wall because they wanted to prevent disaffected people who were trying to fleeing to the West. But with this little did they know the trouble it would cause for the future. There were four powers during the time, Russia, France, Britain, and the United States. Berlin was in the Russian sector, but because the powers were only split amongst four countries it became a

The Soviet Union decided to blockade Berlin which meant that all surface traffic between the western zones and Berlin was restricted. This included railways and highways that were used as routes to transport many necessities to West Berlin. The Soviets could do this without and problems because the west and the Soviet Union never made a written pact in regards to the rights of western-allied ground access to Berlin. Stalin did offer negotiations to the USA, however, the USA decided not to give up or be seen as weak, and as a result, orchestrated a monumental

“But there was always the risk that Russian reaction might lead to war. We had to face the possibility that Russia might deliberately choose to make Berlin the pretext for war. . .”- Harry S. Truman.

The aim of this investigation is to assess the main factors that ultimately led to the failure of the Berlin blockade, giving the Soviets

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

The first note was written by the United States to the USSR. The note opens by stating that the United States has problems with what the government of the USSR is doing. In the second paragraph, August 13, 1961 is referenced. This is the day that Berlin awoke to find that the East German Army had begun to place a barbed wire fence that would cut off West Berlin from East Germany. When the wall was built, millions of East Germans were prevented from fleeing to West Berlin. This mass emigration was occurring because the economic and political situation in East Germany was poor and the people were fleeing to West Germany where the conditions were better. In the third paragraph, the United States rejects the building of the wall as it would prevent the East Germans from fleeing to the West. The United States asserts that this breaks the quadripartite agreement along with the decision made by the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Four Powers. The United States says that it never agreed to restricting movement in Berlin and that makes the actions of the East German government illegal. In the fourth paragraph, the United States says that East Germany has admitted that the only reason the wall was built was due to political and internal turmoil. The political and internal reasons that the note refers to are the differences in the governments in East and West Berlin. In East Berlin there was communist rule under Soviet leadership. The Soviets had not accepted the

“Ich bin ein Berliner,” written and forcefully enunciated by John Fitzgerald Kennedy to the West Berliners on June 26th, 1963, declared the United States’ solidarity with the people of West Berlin, that they would always have support, that they would always have the freedom to govern themselves even in the face of seemingly-overwhelming pressure from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. JFK got his message across to the West Berliners by way of ethos, pathos, logos, and clever use of diction.