Berlin+Airlift+AmD

= The Berlin Airlift = The Berlin airlift was when President Truman ordered the air force to fly supplies to West Berlin in order to keep them alive and at the same time not provoke war with the Soviets. Many things led up to the Berlin airlift. After WWII the U.S. believed that Western Europe's prosperity and success depended on Germany's recovery; however the Soviets wanted Germany to make reparations. Eventually the United States, Great Britain, and France merged their zones into the Federal Republic of Germany, aka West Germany. The Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic, aka East Germany. At that point the Soviets realized they would never receive the desired reparations, so they cut all road and rail traffic to West Berlin. Cutting off West Berlin was an attempt to force the U.S. to reconsider its decision or abandon West Berlin. The U.S. did neither, instead President Truman sent bombers with atomic weapons to British bases. Pres. Truman did not want to provoke a war with the Soviets, thus the Berlin airlift. It lasted from June, 1948, to Spring, 1949. Stalin lifted the blockade on May 12, 1949. In the end the Berlin airlift represented the American determination to contain communism. It also showed that the U.S. would not give into Soviet demands.