Why the Berlin Airlift Was the First Major Battle of the Cold War

Almost as soon as World War II ended, the question of what to do with a defeated, destroyed Germany threatened to drive a wedge between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies. At Potsdam in 1945, the Big Three (the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union) agreed to divide Germany into occupation zones, with the Soviets taking the eastern half of the country and the United States, Great Britain and France dividing up the west. The capital city of Berlin, located deep within East Germany, was partitioned in much the same way.

Three years later, as the two sides found themselves increasingly at odds, the future of West Berlin hung in the balance. On June 24, 1948, outraged by the currency reform introduced by the United States and Britain into their occupied zones of Germany, the Soviets blocked all road, rail and water routes to the Allied-controlled sectors of Berlin. The blockade cut off the city’s electricity, food and coal supply, as well as its access to the outside world. For the Allies, coming to the aid of West Berlin—a democratic island in the middle of a communist state—was non-negotiable.