Sweet Victory
How the Berlin Airlift Divided East and West
Joseph Pearson . 909.82 PEARSON 2025 . Hillsboro Lib
Pearson chooses both his subtitle and his examples to make the airlift be the cause rather than the result of three more likely causes:
(1) The Soviets printing huge quantities of "shared currency" Reichsmarks and dropping its value from $0.005 ($0.40 before Germany's defeat) to less than the value of one cigarette. A cash cow for the Soviets, a drain on US/British/French zone economies and growth.
(2) "West Germany" (British, French, and American zones) replaced the Reichsmark with the Deutsche Mark, stopped the hemorrhage, and began rebuilding towards prosperity. The Deutsche Mark purchased food and reconstruction materials for Berlin from the West, rather than Soviet crap. Stalin's cash cow went dry.
- (3) Stalin closed the road and rail links from the west through Soviet Germany to Berlin, perhaps intending to FORCE the Western sector Berliners to "buy local" using Reichsmarks instead of Deutsche Marks. Some West Berliners did buy local; many East Berliners could also use Deutsche Marks to buy superior western products (including luxury goods) rather than Soviet crap.
A possible "US cause" for the airlift, besides the humanitarian, territorial, and propaganda value, is that it slowed the flow of dollars to the east, increasing the value of the dollar relative to the ruble, and US buying power compared to Soviet buying power. Something to keep in mind today, as we shut down US factories and pump manufacturing dollars into Mainland China.
The airlift:
(1) killed Stalin's cash cow (2) Strengthened the US economy; US dollars remained in the US, paying US farmers, pilots, and aircraft workers (3) Greatly enhanced US prestige (4) Showed adversaries that the US can deliver millions of tons by air. Food ... or well-armed soldiers ... or nuclear weapons.
Note that the Russians were working hard to develop nuclear weapons, and detonated their first "Fatman copy" plutonium implosion weapon RDS-1 on 1949 August 29, 16 weeks after ending the blockade on 12 May 1949. Russia stockpiled 29 more plutonium weapons by 1951. The U.S. had about 100 by 1951, and both nations raced towards overkill. Then Britain, then France, then China ... then Alabama?
All that said ... here are some notes from the book. I quit reading on page 67 of 249, and "index-skimmed" after that. The timeline on Page 250-251 is useful. The 1950 film "The Big Lift" is included in the 4 DVD set "Combat classics 20 movies" at Forest Grove lib rary, or $5.57 used from eBay. Combat Classics 20 movies is $9.80 from eBay.
--- note: Pearson uses Roman numerals for chapter numbers. Rome doesn't use Roman numerals. I will use Roman numerals the next time I build a stone aqueduct with slave labor.
- p23 Chapter 2: Roar
- p23 American troops 'overfed, overpaid, oversexed, and over here'
- p25
- p28
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- p32 Chapter 3: Thw Unforgivable
- p33
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- p40
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- p43
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- p45 Chapter 4: Enemy of my Enemy
- p53 Chapter 5: The Revolutionary
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- p65 Chapter 6: The Breakdown
- p67
- p67