1. Continue the conventional bombings and blockade. Truman could have relied on the B-29 firebombing raids on Japan's cities that could have combined with the naval blockade to wear down the Japanese resistance and force their surrender. Scholars that were critical of this approach pointed out that the bombing may have taken some time to force a surrender putting American pilots, troops and sailors at risk.…
The U.S. contained the communist by providing aid to Berlin by aircraft, sending troops to South Korea, and establishing a quarantine against the Soviets in Cuba. America and the Allies decided to support Berlin by flying in supplies for over 2 million people within a year. The Soviets decided to create a blockade on June 27, 1948, even blocking food shipments to West Berlin, (Document B). Thus, America and its allies decide to support the West Berliners by air, flying in supplies of everything from food to coal, supported by Document B. On May 12, 1949 the blockade was removed in Berlin.…
1. Berlin Blockade and Airlift • Who - Soviet and Western Allies • What - The soviets chose to seal the city off by closing all railroads and highways that led from Berlin to West Germany in order to drive the Western powers out of Berlin. Soviet wanted to get the Allies to give up Berlin. The Allies chose to drop off supplies via planes to support West Berlin. When - 1948/49 Where - Berlin Why - Rising tension over control of Berlin caused by the western power’s decision to declare a separate constitution for the western sectors of Germany and the western power’s decision to issue a new currency in their zone. Plus, because Soviet could not come to a conclusion with the Allies in the Four Power Commission, they got out of the four power commission. The Soviet is trying drive Western out of West Berlin through the Berlin Blockade. Significance - Makes Germany central point of the cold war. Increased tensions between Soviet and the Western Allies. It provoked genuine fears of war in the west. The increased tension over the blockade led to the creation of two independent German States, divided city of Berlin. Plus, this event hastened the creation of North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an American-Western European military Alliance.…
4) The Russians responded to containment by cutting off access to Berlin, demanding the withdrawal of American and Western European military forces –Truman refused and ordered an airlift to supply the city. In early 1949 Soviets called off the blockade.…
The Berlin crisis between 1958 and 1961 was a primary issue for the USA and the USSR. Since the end of World War Two in 1945, Berlin had been divided into the West Berlin (for the USA, UK and France) and East Berlin (for the USSR). Both sides were determined to keep control of their half of Berlin and it was seen as vital in the strength and success of each country as a whole. US General Clay said ‘when Berlin falls, western Germany will be next. If we mean to hold Europe against communism we must not budge’. This suggests that keeping control of West Berlin was incredibly important to the Americans and if they were to lose…
Initially believed to have been implemented by Stalin to aid the “spread of communism to Western Europe”, the Berlin Blockade was the first action taken by the Soviets in the war. In an attempt to starve the west into giving into communism, Stalin closed all roads, rail and canal links to West Berlin. With help from the West’s developing economy, the East had not with communism. The clear divide in living standards between Capitalism and Communism rulings were pedestalled for all the world to see, threatening Stalin’s approach for Communism’s spread. Many orthodox historians believe that Stalin therefore commenced the Berlin blockade because he wanted to start starving the west into submission, so he could spread communism west. However, threatening this theory was Stalin’s paranoia, and it could be argued that he felt threatened by the possibility of Soviet satellite states seeing the benefits of capitalism drowned by the downfall of communism. Stalin couldn’t risk this, so had to act by weakening capitalism and exposing its own downfalls. Stalin’s reluctance to expand further across Europe could also be used as evidence to support the idea that this was not an act of Soviet expansionism. Source 9 states “withdraw the Soviet Union behind its new defensive east European barrier” suggesting Truman chose to blow the Berlin…
Following the end of World War II the previously allied nations, the US and the Soviet Union, began to allow their political and economic differences take forefront over what is now known as The Cold War. The central issue between these countries centered around the practice of communism in the Soviet Union and the United States’s desire to contain it. The tensions between these countries came into the forefront during their attempts to spread their own policies to places such as Berlin, Korea, and Cuba. As the Soviet Union frantically tried to solicit these nations into communism the US succeeded in containing their ventures by setting up the Berlin Airlift, sending troops to South Korea, and putting up a quarantine around Cuba.…
The United States used nearly 700 aircrafts were used to deliver thousands supplies everyday to West Berlin (“Berlin Blockade”). On May 12, 1949, the Soviets opened the borders and concluded that the blockade was a fail. I believe that the United States made the right decision in helping West Berlin through this difficult time. In 1962, the world patiently waited 13 days in hopes of a peaceful resolution to the Cuban missile crisis. In October, United States secretly took aerial photographs that revealed several Soviet missiles that…
The city of Berlin was located within the Soviet area of the country, and the Yalta and Potsdam agreements split the city into sectors in which the Soviets took the east half, while the United States if America, Great Britain, and France took the west. With quite the amount of tactics to drive the United States, Britain and France out of Berlin, the Soviets had blockade West Berlin with the purpose of starving them out of the city, but this tactic did not work however. The United States of America, Great Britain, and France supplied their sectors through the Berlin Aircraft, which delivered more than two million tons of food, fuel and goods to West Berlin. With another effort from Berlin such as the one above occurring in 1958, 70,400 refugees fled East Germany, leading to the construction of the Berlin Wall. Within two weeks, the Berlin Wall was built and the conversion between East and West Berlin became strict.…
In this essay I will be talking about both John Kennedy’s and Ronald Reagan’s speeches about the berlin wall. The second paragraph is my interpretation of Kennedy’s speech. The next paragraph is about Reagan’s speech. Then, I’ll explain why I think Kennedy’s speech was more convincing to actually tear down the wall.…
As the cold war was getting started, both the United States and Soviet Russia had different opinions on what would happen to Germany. The US and the UK wanted to rebuild its industry while the USSR wanted to destroy Germany. The congress voted that the Marshall Aid plan should be introduced; Stalin disagreed and instead blocked all the roads leading to berlin as he saw this as an attempt to undermine Soviet Russia’s influence in Eastern Europe.…
The Cold War started after WW2. Harry S. Truman showed off all of his nuclear…
needed to break the blockade to keep West Berlin from becoming communist, but an outright war with the Soviet Union risked World War III, as stated in document 16. America and its allies supported West Berlin by flying supplies in from West Germany. The non-violent solution ended the blockade without…
After World War II, President Roosevelt assumed everything was neutral, however tensions rose with the Soviet Union which turned into a conflict known was the Cold War. The Soviet Union kept trying to spread their communist ideology to many countries to gain their power over the world, however with the tensions between, the United States believed they were the only country that could stop them. The American diplomat Kennan suggested to the current president, President Truman , that the containment policy should be taken into operation because the Soviet Union needs to be withheld. The containment policy was a policy that America adopted in mid-twentieth century, where they would prevent Soviet Union from gaining power and turning countries…
The Berlin Blockade was important for relations between the USA and the USSR because it showed Stalin's dissatisfaction at having the presence of the West in the Soviet Zone. It was agreed that the West could have a part of Berlin at Yalta, but Stalin most likely agreed to this because of the friendliness between Roosevelt and himself. As the blockade proved unsuccessful, relations would become more tense as the USSR would feel resentful at the loss of the blockade. Whilst the Americans would feel triumphant at their success, the USSR would feel discontent and bitter towards the Americans.…