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KF5JRV > TODAY 12.05.24 06:39l 54 Lines 4356 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - May 12
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<DB0ERF<DK0WUE<DK0WUE<N2NOV<K5DAT<KF5JRV
Sent: 240512/0535Z 20824@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.23
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 citizens
.
At the end of World War II, Germany was divided into four sectors administered by the four major Allied powers: the USSR, the U
nited States, Britain and France. Berlin, the German capital, was likewise divided into four sectors, even though it was locate
d deep within the Soviet sector of eastern Germany. The future of Germany and Berlin was a major sticking point in postwar trea
ty talks, especially after the United States, Britain, and France sought to unite their occupation zones into a single economic
zone. In March 1948, the Soviet Union quit the Allied Control Council governing occupied Germany over this issue. In May, the
three Western powers agreed to the imminent formation of West Germany, a nation that would exist entirely independent of Soviet
-occupied eastern Germany. The three western sectors of Berlin were united as West Berlin, which was to be under the administra
tion of West Germany.
On June 20, as a major step toward the establishment of a West German government, the Western powers introduced a new Deutsche
mark currency in West Germany and West Berlin. The Soviets condemned this move as an attack on the East German currency and on
June 24 began a blockade of all rail, road, and water communications between Berlin and the West. The four-power administration
of Berlin had ceased with the unification of West Berlin, the Soviets said, and the Western powers no longer had a right to be
there. With West Berlin’s food, fuel, and other necessities cut off, the Soviets reasoned, it would soon have to submit to Com
munist control.
Britain and the United States responded by initiating the largest airlift in history, flying 278,288 relief missions to the cit
y during the next 14 months, resulting in the delivery of 2,326,406 tons of supplies. As the Soviets had cut off power to West
Berlin, coal accounted for over two-thirds of the material delivered. In the opposite direction, return flights transported Wes
t Berlin’s industrial exports to the West. Flights were made around the clock, and at the height of the Berlin airlift, in Apri
l 1949, planes were landing in the city every minute. Tensions were high during the airlift, and three groups of U.S. strategic
bombers were sent as reinforcements to Britain while the Soviet army presence in eastern Germany increased dramatically. The S
oviets made no major effort to disrupt the airlift. As a countermeasure against the Soviet blockade, the Western powers also la
unched a trade embargo against eastern Germany and other Soviet bloc countries.
On May 12, 1949, the Soviets abandoned the blockade, and the first British and American convoys drove through 110 miles of Sovi
et Germany to reach West Berlin. On May 23, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was formally established. On October
7, the German Democratic Republic, a Communist state, was proclaimed in East Germany. The Berlin airlift continued until Septe
mber 30, in an effort to build up a year’s supply of essential goods for West Berlin in the event of another Soviet blockade. A
nother blockade did not occur, but Cold War tensions over Berlin remained high, culminating in the construction of the Berlin W
all in 1961.
With the gradual waning of Soviet power in the late 1980s, the Communist Party in East Germany began to lose its grip on power.
Tens of thousands of East Germans began to flee the nation, and by late 1989 the Berlin Wall started to come down. Shortly the
reafter, talks between East and West German officials, joined by officials from the United States, Great Britain, France, and t
he USSR, began to explore the possibility of reunification, which was achieved on October 3, 1990. Two months following reunifi
cation, all-German elections took place and Helmut Kohl became the first chancellor of the reunified Germany. Although this act
ion came more than a year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, for many observers the reunification of Germany effective
ly marked the end of the Cold War.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
Email KF5JRV@gmail.com
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