Cold War Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Berlin Blockade and Airlift=== {{Main|Berlin Blockade}} [[File:C-47s at Tempelhof Airport Berlin 1948.jpg|thumb|American C-47s unloading at [[Berlin Tempelhof Airport|Tempelhof Airport]] in Berlin during the Berlin Blockade]] The United States and Britain merged their western German occupation zones into [[Bizone|"Bizonia"]] (1 January 1947, later "Trizonia" with the addition of France's zone, April 1949).{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=13}} As part of the economic rebuilding of Germany, in early 1948, representatives of a number of Western European governments and the United States announced an agreement for a merger of western German areas into a federal governmental system.{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=18}} In addition, in accordance with the [[Marshall Plan]], they began to re-industrialize and rebuild the West German economy, including the introduction of a new [[Deutsche Mark]] currency to replace the old [[Reichsmark]] currency that the Soviets had debased.{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=31}} The US had secretly decided that a unified and neutral Germany was undesirable, with [[Walter Bedell Smith]] telling General Eisenhower "in spite of our announced position, we really do not want nor intend to accept German unification on any terms that the Russians might agree to, even though they seem to meet most of our requirements."{{sfn|Layne|2007|p=67}} Shortly thereafter, Stalin instituted the [[Berlin Blockade]] (24 June 1948 β 12 May 1949), one of the first major crises of the Cold War, preventing Western food, materials and supplies from arriving in the West Germany's exclave of [[West Berlin]].{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=33}} The United States (primarily), Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and several other countries began the massive "Berlin airlift", supplying West Berlin with food and other provisions despite Soviet threats.{{sfn|Miller|2000|pp=65β70}} The Soviets mounted a public relations campaign against the policy change. Once again, the East Berlin communists attempted to disrupt the [[Berlin Blockade#December elections|Berlin municipal elections]] (as they had done in the 1946 elections),{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=13}} which were held on 5 December 1948 and produced a turnout of 86.3% and an overwhelming victory for the non-communist parties.{{sfn|Turner|1987|p=29}} The results effectively divided the city into East and West, the latter comprising US, British and French sectors. 300,000 Berliners demonstrated and urged the international airlift to continue,{{sfn|Fritsch-Bournazel|1990|p=143}} and US Air Force pilot [[Gail Halvorsen]] created "[[Berlin Blockade#"Operation Little Vittles"|Operation Vittles]]", which supplied candy to German children.{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=26}} The Airlift was as much a logistical as a political and psychological success for the West; it firmly linked West Berlin to the United States.{{sfn|Daum|2008|pp=11β13, 41}} In May 1949, Stalin backed down and lifted the blockade.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=34}}{{sfn|Miller|2000|pp=180β181}} In 1952, Stalin repeatedly [[Stalin Note|proposed a plan]] to unify East and West Germany under a single government chosen in elections supervised by the United Nations, if the new Germany were to stay out of Western military alliances, but this proposal was turned down by the Western powers. Some sources dispute the sincerity of the proposal.{{sfn|van Dijk|1996}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page