The Berlin Blockade has long been seen as the first aggression during the Cold War, and in many ways it was. It certainly marked the beginning. It is, more accurately, however, the first time the policies of the United States and the Soviet Union were recognized as mutually exclusive. It made both sides recognize the fact that the other would not back down, and also that the other's needs would always be detrimental to their own policy. The ideological and policy divide was thoroughly understood and policy was now planned based on this fact. The Berlin Blockade also ended a divide in Washington. It made individuals in the intelligence community realize that the war was over and that negotiating was not just difficult like it had been during
