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Posted on 09/20/2004 8:10:50 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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DIVIDED GERMANY  Three and a half million Berliners live deep inside Soviet lines. The Nazis' once-proud capital, reduced to a pile of rubble by Allied anger, is down to its bare essentials. CURRENCY REFORM In June 1948, an announcement by the Western Allies brings a crisis to Berlin. They establish a currency reform meant to wipe out the German black market and further tie the vulnerable German economy to the West. The Soviets are not told and are infuriated by the action. Moscow says Berlin is located in the Soviet zone and therefore "economically forms part of it."  Sir Brian Robertson (Great Britian), Pierre Koenig (france), Lucius D. Clay (USA). Sir Brian Robertson, the British military governor in Berlin, along with his U.S. counterpart, Gen. Lucius Clay, respond by introducing a special version of a new German currency, the deutschmark, stamped with a "B" for Berlin. AIRLIFT On Thursday, June 24, 1948, West Berlin wakes to find itself under a Soviet blockade -- and in the midst of the first major confrontation of the Cold War. The Western Allies impose a counter-blockade on the Soviet zone. The Soviets hope to starve the West out of Berlin.  The West had been through a similar short-term Soviet blockade of Berlin two months earlier -- and had responded with an airlift using air corridors set up in a 1945 agreement with the Soviets. Now, new plans are drawn up -- for long-term replenishment of West Berlin from the air. NEW ALLIES The Berlin airlift brings a new mindset to the Western Allies, who start thinking of West Germany as an ally, rather than an occupied territory. In West Berlin, the airlift brings people sustenance and hope. In one memorable instance, the airlift -- in the form of American pilot Gail Halvorsen -- rains candy on West Berlin's desperate children.  In 1948, Halvorsen’s bunk was a factory for miniature parachutes weighted with chocolate bars. He became known as the 'Candy Bomber,' 'Uncle Wobbly-Wings' and 'Der Schokoladen Flieger' ('Chocolate Pilot'). (U.S. Air Force photo) As it becomes evident that the Soviets are not going to back down from their blockade, the Western Allies consider how to expand their airlift operations. Larger cargo planes are brought in, as well as bombers with cargo capacity. WEST-EAST  Berliners are still free to move around their city, despite the Soviet blockade. While West Berlin is suffering through shortages of electricity and other essentials, the eastern sector offers a relatively normal lifestyle. Politically, however, the city is on edge.  Soviet troops harass West Berliners who go to the eastern zone. And in September, a communist attempt to take over the city council sparks mass protests -- which end in violence. BLOCKADE ENDS The Soviet Union ends its blockade of Berlin on May 12, 1949. A month earlier, at the airlift's peak, Western cargo planes were landing at one of Berlin's three airports at a rate of one every 62 seconds. By the time the airlift ended, more than 275,000 flights had carried 2.3 million tons of supplies to Berlin -- an effort that went down in history as an aviation and logistical feat.  At least 79 people, including 31 Americans, 39 British and nine Germans, had lost their lives, mostly in plane crashes. But the confrontation proved to be only the opening act in the decades-long Cold War.
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BTTT!!!!!!
Excellent commentary as usual.
Not peaceful coexistence, not moral equivalence, not UN-brokered conflict resolution--
AMEN! You only get peace when your enemies are defeated, not when you "peacefully coexist" with them.
I did not know the NAZIs used these tactics.
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