Berlin Blockade

Of the many years covered in class, the most politically influential, physically and economically devastating, and unprecedented events fall between the years 1939, with the invasion of Poland, to 1949, with the end of the Berlin Blockade and the beginning of a long Cold War that would shape Europe for decades to come. The events of World War II were unprecedented in the style of warfare as well as the number of lives taken. The political allegiances built during these years would have lasting…

sector of the Country. Berlin, the capital of Germany was divided into this sector. Berlin became a city that communist and non-communist rallied for position in. The Soviet Union, to keep capitalist ideas from entering their sector, built the wall of Berlin, which stretches the length of the city, and gave no passage to the Western sector. In an effort to rid Berlin of US forces, the Soviet Union Block the city, hoping to force out the West. The US responded with the Berlin airlift and brought…

involvement, but he eventually claimed responsibility for the attack (“Bay of Pigs Invasion”). In August of 1961 the Berlin Wall was constructed, and President Kennedy sent 1,500 reserve troops to the city. Diplomats and troops continued to go through checkpoints into East Berlin, exercising the U.S.’s rights in all of Berlin guaranteed by the Potsdam agreement of 1945 (“The Berlin Wall is Built”). Also in April, the first man was sent into space by the Soviet Union, which once again increased…

ownership of East Germany and West Berlin. He also threatens to sign a treaty with East Germany if his commands don’t follow through. This prompted Kennedy to send troops to West Germany which then led to the construction of the Berlin Wall by the Soviets. They built this wall to separate their side of Berlin from West Berlin, and it prevented people fleeing west. Many Germans escaped to West Berlin because they didn’t want to live with a Communist economic system. The Berlin Wall was very…

America has had many interferences with foreign nations, some good, most not so good. There was a “war” that included Russia, or the USSR, it’s also known as The Cold War. It was a basically a series of proxy wars in different countries to prove who’s government would fall first and who was the true global superpower. Next we transition to the 1940’s and the 1910’s with both World War I and World War II. To make it as simple as possible, WWI was America and Great Britain vs Germany, and WWII was…

United Kingdom partitions of Germany were merged to form West Germany. In response to the merger, Russia blocked supply routes leading in and out of Western Berlin. The people of Western Berlin were starving and dying from lack of food and supplies. These actions caused the United States to step in and take action, an exercise known as the Berlin Airlift. The United States had to make supply drops periodically in the city to prevent any more torture or casualties to the people of Western…

it became clear that neither side would survive an all out nuclear war. This meant the Cold War could decide the fate of the world (lecture notes). Both nations controlled a piece of the city of Berlin after World War II, and tensions rose as the Soviets put up a blockade to starve out the city of Berlin (Lecture notes). To deal with the threat of the Soviet Union, the…

interpreted the installation of missiles in Cuba as a move preparatory to a showdown on Berlin.” - Historian Ernest May. Chief of Staff of the US Airforce, General LeMay, supporter of the US Military industrial complex proposed the bombing of the Soviet Cuban nuclear missile launch sites, but was quickly dismissed as there were fears it could provoke nuclear missile launches or repercussions in Berlin. Berlin was controlled by the Soviets in the East and France, Britain and the US in the West,…

aid in the Greek civil war. Along with this came the creation of America’s foreign-policy commitment to support anti-communist governments. Attitudes hardened more when Stalin ordered the blockade of West Berlin, which he saw as a dangerous bridgehead and shop-window for western values. After the successful Berlin Airlift, the Federal Republic of Germany was declared in May 1949, followed by the almost inevitable emergence of the German Democratic Republic as a sovereign nation in…

The Cold War was different compared to any other war because there was no direct fighting between two superpower nations, The U.S and The Soviet Union. The war was mostly about political conflicts that lead to the Containment policy, The Truman Doctrine and Eisenhower’s policies. Those three policies lead to bigger events such as the Korean War and the Cold War at home. The Cold War Origins began in 1947 and ending in 1991. It all started 2 years after WWII when the U.S used the containment…