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Berlin Blockade
First conflict of the Cold War
HOW TO CLOSE THE GAP?
• The USSR had already disagreed with Britain and the USA at Potsdam (July 1945) about what should be done with Germany.
• Germany had been split into four
zones.
What caused it? [CABAN]
• Cold War
– was just getting started (e.g. Czechoslovakia, March 1948)
• Aims
– Stalin wanted to destroy Germany – Britain and the USA wanted to rebuild Germany.
• Bizonia
– The Russians were taking German machinery back to the USSR.
– In January 1947, Britain and the USA joined their two zones together to try to get German industry going.
– They called the new zone Bi-zonia (‘two zones’).
• American Aid – Congress voted for Marshall Plan on 31
March 1948. Immediately, the Russians started searching all road and rail traffic into Berlin.
• New Currency –On 1 June, America and France
announced that they wanted to create the new country of West Germany
• 23 June they introduced a new currency into ‘Bizonia’ and western Berlin. The next day the Russians stopped all road and rail traffic into Berlin.
• Stalin said he was defending the East German economy against the new currency, which was ruining it. The western powers said he was trying to force them out of Berlin
24 June 1948. 24 June 1948.
Lucius Clay-- military governor of the American zone of occupied Germany
“It was one of the most ruthless efforts in modern times to use mass starvation for political coercion... "
Initially the Soviet authorities thought the plan was working. "Our control and restrictive measures have dealt a strong blow at the prestige of the Americans and British in Germany. " The Soviet authorities reported.
• By the fall the airlift, code-named "Operation Vittles “ by the Americans and “Plain Fare” by the British was often referred to as "LeMay's feed and coal company ," was bringing in an average of 5,000 tons of supplies a day.
1.5 million tons of provisions to the beleaguered city.
These were the primaryair routes used duringthe Berlin Airlift.
What were the Results? [CENA]
• Cold War got worse
–It almost started an all-out war.
• East and West Germany – Germany split up. – In May 1949, America, Britain and France
united their zones into the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).
– In October 1949, Stalin set up the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) .
• NATO and the Warsaw Pact
– In 1949, the western Allies set up NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) as a defensive alliance against Russia.
– NATO countries surrounded Russia; in 1955, the Soviet Union set up the Warsaw Pact – an alliance of Communist states.
• Arms Race
–After Berlin, the USA and the USSR realized that they were in a competition for world domination.
–They began to build up their armies and weapons.
'If we go on with this race, there won't be a winner!'
