Program Information

By July 1948 the Soviet Union no longer was willing to tolerate West Berlin. After the war, the Soviet Union forced Communist governments on most of those Eastern European nations its army had occupied, and erected barriers to impede communications, trade, and travel between East and West.

A Moment in Time is a brief, exciting and compelling journey into the past. Created to excite and enlighten the public about the past, its relevance to the present and its impact on the future, A Moment In Time is a captivating historical narrative that is currently broadcast worldwide.

Transcript

Lead: For 400 years service men and women have fought to carve out and defend freedom and the civilization we know as America. This series on A Moment in Time is devoted to the memory of those warriors, whose sacrifice gave, in the words of Lincoln at Gettysburg, the last full measure.

Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: By July 1948 the Soviet Union no longer was willing to tolerate West Berlin. After the war, the Soviet Union forced Communist governments on most of those Eastern European nations its army had occupied, and erected barriers to impede communications, trade, and travel between East and West. Yet, it was Germany that would prove to be the most serious irritant between the two emerging Cold War coalitions. The Soviets occupied the eastern zone while the western zones of Germany were administered by the United States, France, and Britain.

The City of Berlin received the same general division as the nation as a whole. Four nations, four zones. The Soviets treated their section of Berlin as if it were conquered territory, forcibly transferring skilled workers back to Russia, failing to clean up the wartime bomb damage or only repairing destroyed public works such as sewage and water systems. The Allies, especially the United States, began to spend billions of dollars, many of which made their way to Germany and West Berlin. Gradually a new city began to emerge from the rubble of war in marked contrast to the pitiful municipality just across the barrier in East Berlin.

In February 1948 at a conference in London, the Allies made plans to unify the western zones of Germany and Berlin into a state with a single stable currency. This posed a threat to Russia and on July 24, 1948 it retaliated with a bold attempt to cut off West Berlin (110 miles inside the Soviet zone) from outside contact and vital supplies of electricity, coal, and food.

At first the Allies considered forcing the blockade with a convoy of trucks backed by an army regiment, but cooler heads prevailed and within two days western commanders put together the beginnings of one of the most heroic rescue efforts in modern history. Suggested by British General Sir Brian Richardson, the Allies bought time by developing what was later to be known as a luftbrüke, or air bridge. Denied the right of surface passage, they would supply all the needs of a giant municipality by air. By the time the mission reached its height, courageous Allied pilots were ferrying 13,000 tons of food, fuel, and medical supplies on 1000 flights every single day. For eleven months Berlin survived due to this extraordinary effort. Inclement weather and occasional Soviet harassment increased the danger and resulted in 65 accidental deaths, but the Berlin airlift was a triumph of ingenuity, hard work, sacrifice, and determination. It hastened the creation of NATO and West Germany and delivered the Soviets a humiliating blow to their prestige and a hard lesson in geopolitics. The Cold War was fully engaged.

At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

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