Berlin Airlift & NATO

•How did the Berlin Airlift and NATO contribute to increasing tensions of the Cold War?

C) Berlin Blockade and Airlift (10min)June 1948 - May 1949

Factors Causing the Blockade1. Marshall Plan2. Union of Western German (Bizonia) states

creating its own currency• Eastern European countries would buy Western

Germany currency which devalues the Eastern European currency

3. Differing aims for Germany• Russia wants it to crumble• US/ BR want to rebuild its economy

Therefore, Russia blocks off surface routes from Western Germany to West Berlin

Berlin Blockade

1948- 49

Federal Republic of Germany

Report on Negotiations with Soviets, ca. 1948

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/berlin_airlift/large/documents/index.php?pagenumber=1&documentdate=1948-00-00&documentid=3-3&studycollectionid=Berlin

General Lucius Clay

• Called for armed convoys to push through the blockade

• Plan was never implemented

• American ground forces in Europe were not strong enough to defeat the USSR

Berlin Airlift• US decides not to start a war and decides to send

supplies to West Berlin by air (British proposal)• Shows the resolve of the US to keep West Berlin

C-47: Used to carry supplies (3.5 tons each)

“Little Lift”• Using the C-47s in

April 1948 (102 C-47s available)

• Gatow and Tempelhof used as landing strips

• Back in November 30, 1945, it was agreed in writing, that there would be three 20-mile wide air corridors providing access to the city

1948

"Operation Vittles” "Operation Plane Fare"

• 3,475 tons of supplies were needed daily to keep the over 2 million people alive 3475 ÷ 3.5 (capacity of C-47) =

approximately 1000 flights/day needed!!!

• Coal was the largest necessity (industries)

• Later in June, C-54’s were used (10 tons) – faster too

• Spacing of 3 minutes, both types of planes were used

Increasing tensionJune 28, 1948

• US flies 60 B-29 bombers to Britain– B-29s were the atomic bomb carriers– But the US had no readily available atomic

bombs (Stalin doesn’t know this)

Airlift Facts• The blockade lasted 318 days (11 months)• In the winter of 1948–49 Berliners lived on dried potatoes, powdered eggs

and cans of meat • 4 hours of electricity/day• 275,000 flights carried over 1½ million tons of supplies (2.3 million with

Britain)• On 16 April 1949, 1400 flights brought in 13,000 tons of supplies in one day • Some pilots dropped chocolate and sweets

Candy Drops

Significance• May 1929 Soviets end the blockade

– They did not want war either• Airlift continues for a few more months to stock

Berlin in case of another blockade• 2.5 million West Berliners saved without violence• US would see the importance of air transport

and increases production of transport planes• Template for Cold War conflicts – push to the

point of war but drawing back just before (“Brinkmanship”)

• Leads to the creation of NATO

D) NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization• Truman Doctrine = political warning• Marshal Plan = economic resistance• NATO = military alliance

– US, Canada, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Italy, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg

Reasons for NATO

• Protection from “unprovoked” attack

• Russian communism posed a threat to democracy

Reasons for NATO

• Protection from “unprovoked” attack

• Russian communism posed a threat to democracy

NATO

• America to be its leader

• Headquarters in Paris

Significance

• Organized defence of the West• European-American cooperation – total

end of isolationism• First American peace time military alliance• Soviets will respond with the Warsaw Pact

in 1955

Essay Assignment• Truman Doctrine• Marshall Plan• Berlin Blockade/Airlift• NATO

To what extent do the actions of the USA between 1945-1949 reflect a policy of containment towards communism?

ORTo what extent were the Americans/ Russians responsible

for escalating Cold War tensions between 1945-1949? (causes and effects)