The Soviet blockade of West Berlin, and the subsequent allied airlift that supplied the beleaguered city, signaled the first major crisis of the COLD WAR.
Following the surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945, the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and later France, divided the vanquished nation into four occupation zones, with each responsible for administering its own zone. Deeply embedded in the Soviet zone, Berlin was treated as a special case because of its symbolic significance as the former capital of the Third Reich, and was also split into four parts. These divisions were intended to be a temporary military measure with the eventual goal of rebuilding a unified, neutral Germany. During the years immediately following the war, however, schisms appeared in the relationship between the occupying powers, rendering powerless such organs of unity as the Allied Control Council (the Council created to head a unified Germany) and the Kommandatura (the similar body intended for coordinated control of Berlin).
By 1948, international events had elevated tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union to the breaking point. In Germany, the American and Soviet occupying forces crossed swords over virtually every issue. The once mutually agreed upon goal of creating a unified neutral Germany was cast aside, as both the Americans and the Soviets sought to implement their own programs. Fearing the revival of a strong Germany, the Soviet Union maintained a punishing reparations program geared toward ensuring the continued weakness of the German people. Believing that this program would prevent Western European recovery, the United States, along with Great Britain and France, sought to rehabilitate West Germany. These strategic differences eventually culminated in the blockade of Berlin.
The final straw was the American effort to introduce currency reform in the Western occupation zones. Americans perceived the currency reform as a necessary measure to restore stability to the Western zone, whereas Soviets believed currency reform to signal the West determination to rebuild West Germany and permanently divide the Germans. From March to June 1948, the Soviets progressively closed off access to Berlin. On June 24, the Soviet Union announced that four-power administration of the city had ended and suspended all land traffic from the West into Berlin. Faced with this provocation, the administration of Harry S. Truman considered a number of options. Offered everything from bombing Soviet troops to sending an armored column to Berlin in defiance of the Soviet decree, Truman ultimately decided upon a more flexible and less hostile airlift.
On June 26, the United States and Great Britain began to supply West Berlin with food and other vital supplies by air. Although it began slowly at first, the airlift became increasingly efficient under the direction of General Curtis Lemay. The airlift kept Berlin supplied for 11 months until the Soviet Union lifted the blockade on May 12, 1949. Together, the United States and Great Britain made 300,000 flights along just three air corridors. The airlift delivered 2,323,738 tons of food, fuel, machinery, and other supplies at a total cost of $224,000,000. The Soviet Union ultimately lifted the blockade because it failed to drive the Western powers out of Berlin, induced the West to initiate an embargo on all strategic exports to the Eastern Bloc, and sullied the Soviets’ hard-won international prestige.
The blockade hastened the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, spurred the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and solidified the division of Berlin, Germany, Europe, and the world. The Berlin Blockade also helped transform the perception of Germans in the West. The ostensible courage of West Berliners in standing firm in the face of Soviet intimidation and stoically enduring months of difficult living conditions helped convince Americans that West Germans were dependable democrats and not nascent Nazis.
Further reading: Thomas Parrish, Berlin in the Balance: The Blockade, the Airlift, the First Major Battle of the Cold War (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1998); Ann Tusa and John Tusa, The Berlin Blockade (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1988).
—Brian Etheridge
World History
