Harry S. Truman

==== Berlin airlift ====
{{Further|Berlin Blockade}}
On June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union blocked access to the three [[Berlin Soviet Zone|Western-held sectors]] of Berlin. The Allies had not negotiated a deal to guarantee supply of the sectors deep within the Soviet-occupied zone. The commander of the U.S. occupation zone in Germany, General [[Lucius D. Clay]], proposed sending a large armored column across the Soviet zone to [[West Berlin]] with instructions to defend itself if it were stopped or attacked. Truman believed this would entail an unacceptable risk of war. He approved [[Ernest Bevin]]'s plan to supply the blockaded city by air.

On June 25, the Allies initiated the [[Berlin Airlift]], a campaign to deliver food, coal and other supplies using military aircraft on a massive scale. Nothing like it had ever been attempted before, and no single nation had the capability, either logistically or materially, to accomplish it. The airlift worked; ground access was again granted on May 11, 1949. Nevertheless, the airlift continued for several months after that. The Berlin Airlift was one of Truman's great foreign policy successes; it significantly aided his election campaign in 1948.{{sfn|Truman Library|1988a}}