.http://wiki.keithl.com/SweetVictory2025 == 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" [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsmark | 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 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Mark | Deutsche Mark, ]] stopped the hemorrhage, and began rebuilding towards prosperity. Revolutionary 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. ----- Revolutionary 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,Revolutionary 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 ... [[ https://genius.com/Tom-lehrer-whos-next-lyrics | 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 Dakota: Douglas Aircraft Company Transport Aircraft .p28 plane roared ...over a seven-story building ... only 17ft [5m?], with skid marks on the roof. .p30 The fuselage was an aluminum drain .p31 following the moss ... west .p32 Chapter 3: Thw Unforgivable .p33 Collie Small in ''Collier's'': for sheer meanness, Berlin is unsurpassed by any other city in the world .p37 leaving per-war Berlin, farewell sex with three girlfriends .p38 Berlin US Consul [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avra_M._Warren | Avra M. Warren ]] "greatest misfortune for Jews in Berlin. .p38 instead US Consul in Cuba .p38 Sister Steffi arrived NYC March 1941, half-year before deportation of Jews from the Reich (to camps in Poland?) .p39 "...God-damned Nazi?" "I'm Jewish" "But we are crying for healthy young men!" .p40 March 1945, Ries sent to Berlin to work through an archive of secret Nazi documents .p41 grandmother and two aunts murdered in [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt_family_camp | Theresianstadt ]] and [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp | Auschwitz ]] .p41 translated Hitler's last will and testament .p43 as small boy: elephant had two trunks, second tucked under his belly . elephant penis can be 100cm long, 16 cm at the base .p43 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fl%C3%A2neur | flâ Flânerie is the act of strollinnerie is the act of strolling ]] .p43 [[ https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivaer_Platz | Olivaer Platz ]], where Henry's grandmother and aunt were transported from in 1942 .p45 Chapter 4: Enemy of my Enemy .p53 Chapter 5: The Revolutionary .p55 swot: an insignificant student who is ridiculed as being affected or boringly studious .p56 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Reuter | Ernst Reuter ]] learned Russian as 1916 POW, translated for other Germans .p56 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_International | Comintern ]] leader of 1918 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga_German_Autonomous_Soviet_Socialist_Republic | Volga German SSR ]] .p57 Lenin: "Reuter is the only commissar who sends us bread to Moscow!" .p57 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Germany | "German Communist Party (sic)" KPD ]] expelled 1922 .p57 joined [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany| SPD ]] Social Democratic Party of Germany .p65 Chapter 6: The Breakdown .p67 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Sokolovsky | Sololovsky ]] West German currency reform 'the direct cause of the origin of the so-called Berlin crisis' .p67 February 1948 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Czechoslovak_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat | Czechoslovakian coup ]] rude awakening for leftists and liberals