THE BERLIN BLOCKADE Research Paper

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THE BERLIN BLOCKADE

After WW2,Germany was divided between East which was controlled by the Soviet Union under the Communism and West which was controlled by the U.S.,France,and Great Britain.The capital of Berlin,deep within Soviet-controlled East Germany,was also divided into four parts: one half being Soviet controlled, and the rest divided amongst the others.Four-power provisional government, called the Allied Control Council, was installed in Berlin.

In 1948,the Western Powers (The U.S.,France,and Great Britain)planned to rebuild Germany differed from the Soviet Union's plan.The first heightening of Cold War tensions occurred in 1948 when the Soviets imposed a partial blockade of Berlin in April, and then a full blockade in June.In response to the Soviet blockade of land routes into West Berlin, the United States begins a massive airlift of food, water, and medicine to the citizens of the besieged city. For nearly a year, supplies from American planes sustained the over 2 million people in West Berlin.
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On June 26, 1948, the first planes took off from bases in England and western Germany and landed in West Berlin. It was a daunting logistical task to provide food, clothing, water, medicine, and other necessities of life for the over 2 million citizens of the city. Over 200,000 planes carried in more than one-and-a-half million tons of supplies.On May 12, 1949, an early crisis of the Cold War comes to an end when the Soviet Union lifts its 11-month blockade against West Berlin. The blockade had been broken by a massive U.S.-British airlift of vital supplies to West Berlin’s two million

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