The Berlin Airlift

A detailed Summary of The Berlin Airlift


With the Nazis defeated after World War II, the Western powers finally thought the string of wars was over. On the contrary, the USSR had other plans for the newly conquered Germany. Berlin, Germany's capital, was divided among Great Britain, the United States, France, and Russia. While this division was intended to keep peace, the Russians were formulating plans to take over the other three sections of Berlin.

The Berlin Airlift was the first major test of the Free World's will to resist Soviet aggression. It all began in June 1948, when Soviet authorities claimed that "technical difficulties" would halt all traffic by land and water in and out of the western-controlled sections of Berlin. The only passages left into this territory that wouldn't upset the Soviets were three 20-mile wide air corridors. The Western powers (United States, Great Britain, and France) were then faced with two options: abandoning the city, or supplying the 2.5 million people with enough supplies to live by air for the next 11 months. By choosing the latter, the Western powers embarked on one of the greatest aviation feats in history


The only thing that could possibly have been done differently would be that instead of starting the airlift, Western countries could have tried to negotiate with the Russians resulting in a peaceful outcome. I find this a very unlikely outcome, however, because the Russians were planning for the expansion of communism, while that is the essence of what the allies were fighting against, thus their interests were dramatically opposed. The Western Powers chose the best possible route to solving the issue at hand; they saved the city without creating yet another blood-filled war.

2. "The Cold War." Microsoft Bookshelf Reference Library. Microsoft Corporation. 1998.

At midnight on May 12, 1949, so many months after closing them down, the Soviets reopened land and water routes into Berlin. However, the airlift continued until September 30 to build a backlog of supplies. Although the allies kept the airlift going long enough to keep the city alive, it didn't resolve all the issues. Feelings of resentment were only increased between the United States and the Soviet Union. The leaders of the U.S. military did manage to keep peace, but so

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 772
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

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