1 gen 1948 anni - Soviets blockade West Berlin; Berlin airlift begins

Descrizione:

As the most important industrial economy and the strategic linchpin of Europe, Germany remained a flash point for a potential hot war. When no agreement could be reached with the Soviet Union to unify the four zones of occupation, the Western allies consolidated their three zones in 1947. They then prepared to establish an independent federal German republic, with an economy jump-started by the Marshall Plan. Funds were also slated for West Berlin, in hopes of creating a capitalist showplace 100 miles inside the Soviet zone.

Stung by the West’s plans, Stalin blockaded all traffic to West Berlin in June 1948. Instead of dropping West Berlin from Marshall Plan funding, as Stalin had expected, Truman and the British grew more resolute. “We are going to stay, period,” Truman said plainly. Over the next year, American and British pilots improvised the Berlin Airlift, which flew 2.5 million tons of food and fuel into the Western zones of the city — nearly a ton for each resident. The Soviets did not retaliate against the airlift, however, and on May 12, 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade. The Berlin standoff was the closest the two sides came to actual war prior to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 (see “Crises in Cuba and Berlin” ahead in this chapter).

For 321 days, U.S. planes like this one flew missions to bring food and other supplies to Berlin after the Soviet Union had blocked all surface routes into the former German capital. The blockade was finally lifted on May 12, 1949, after the Soviets conceded that it had been a failure.

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