As World War II came to a close, the USSR and the United States sparked off a conflict that would dominate foreign policies for decades. In 1945, the Yalta and Potsdam conferences between Great Britain, the USSR and the United States resulted in a Germany that was split into four zones, one controlled by each France, Great Britain, the USSR, and the United States. The capital city of Berlin was also divided into four parts. France, Great Britain, and the United States combined their zones to form West Germany and West Berlin, while the USSR made it’s zones into East Germany and East Berlin. As the Cold War ramped up and tensions started running higher, Germany became a center of Cold War tension.
As part of the Marshall plan, the United States gave over 13 billion dollars to Europe in order to improve its economy and provide a market for US goods. Some of that money was channeled into West Germany and West Berlin. Stalin viewed this as a ploy to get the successful and wealthy East German people to move to West Germany and West Berlin. In response, on June 24, 1948, he set up the Berlin Blockade, where he ordered all roads, canals, and railroads connecting West Berlin to East Berlin and East Germany to be blockaded, preventing supplies from entering West Berlin. The US claimed that this was the first step in a Soviet takeover in Europe, and together with Great Britain began the Berlin Airlift on June 26, flying supplies over West Berlin and dropping it in via parachute. At the peak, in September of 1948, one plane flew supplies in every 3 minutes. The USSR couldn’t shoot down the planes without possibly igniting a war, which could devastate the USSR with the United State’s use of nuclear bombs. Eventually on May 12, 1949, Stalin dropped the blockade. The standoff was an embarrassment to the USSR and made Stalin realize that the USSR needed the atomic bomb to stand up to the United States. The United States also started the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) shortly before the blockade ended, which led to the creation of the Warsaw Pact a few years later.
In 1953, Stalin died and Khrushchev took power. Until 1961, with an exception of the Berlin Blockade, East Berlin residents could freely move to and from the West, working wherever and living elsewhere if they wanted. Khrushchev was once again faced with the threat of successful and smart people all moving to West Berlin, so he erected the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961. This was ostensibly because the Western powers could spy from West Berlin, but walls work both ways and the true purpose of the wall was to prevent people from moving from the East to the West. What began as a barbed wire fence became a thick concrete wall, with well guarded checkpoints and guard towers. The thick wall stood as a monument to the separation of Communism and capitalism, outlasting Khrushchev and five successive US presidents until the end of the Cold War era. Ronald Reagan, the sixth president since Eisenhower, made his famous speech by the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987, his amplified voice reaching both sides of the Berlin Wall as he said:
“Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. From the Baltic, south, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers. Farther south, there may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same… General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
These words, among the most notable of his whole presidency, had an effect. In November of 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. East Berlin residents entered West Berlin in swarms, some meeting family for the first time in decades. A couple years later, Gorbachev resigned and the USSR collapsed.
Germany, especially Berlin, was a focus for much of the Cold War. The Berlin Airlift and the Berlin Wall were both key events in the struggle between the United States and the USSR. The way leaders handled these events were instrumental to the end result of the Cold War.
I find it interesting to look at these past events and wonder what would have been different if they had turned out a different way. What if the Berlin Airlift had failed and the United States would have to stop supporting West Berlin? What if the Berlin Wall stood for even longer, possibly even up to today? And the big question from this point on; what would have happened if we passed the brink? If the policies of brinkmanship brought us to the edge and something happened to push us over? Humanity's capacity for destruction has increased through the development of nuclear warfare, and all “what if” thoughts are tainted by this possibility for complete and utter destruction of each other and the earth.
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