What is the significance of berlin in the cold war

The city lay in the Soviet zone, but the Americans, the British and the French were established in their respective occupation zones. Access to Berlin by road, rail and water was impossible until 12 May Food supplies and electricity were cut. The introduction of the DM in the Western sectors of Berlin was the official cause, but the Soviet Union probably wanted to capture the capitalist island in its occupation zone by making the British, French and Americans leave Berlin.

The latter reacted swiftly: the Allied airlift, introduced by General Lucius D. Clay, was to be the appropriate American counter-measure.

In , a Soviet blockade of West Berlin aimed to starve the western Allies out of the city. Instead of retreating, however, the United States and its allies supplied their sectors of the city from the air.

This effort, known as the Berlin Airlift , lasted for more than a year and delivered more than 2. The Soviets called off the blockade in After a decade of relative calm, tensions flared again in Summits, conferences and other negotiations came and went without resolution.

Meanwhile, the flood of refugees continued. The following month, 30, fled. In the first 11 days of August, 16, East Germans crossed the border into West Berlin, and on August 12 some 2, followed—the largest number of defectors ever to leave East Germany in a single day.

That night, Premier Khrushchev gave the East German government permission to stop the flow of emigrants by closing its border for good. In just two weeks, the East German army, police force and volunteer construction workers had completed a makeshift barbed wire and concrete block wall —the Berlin Wall—that divided one side of the city from the other. Before the wall was built, Berliners on both sides of the city could move around fairly freely: They crossed the East-West border to work, to shop, to go to the theater and the movies.

Trains and subway lines carried passengers back and forth. American aircrews made more than , flights, totaling nearly , flying hours and exceeding 92 million miles. While that crisis ended peacefully, the ideological division of Europe had just begun. By the end of the blockade, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had been established, partially in response to Soviet aggression.

A few weeks later, East and West Berlin officially separated, with each becoming a symbol of their respective political views — democracy and freedom in the West versus communism in the East. The Department of Defense provides the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security. Skip to main content Press Enter. You have accessed part of a historical collection on defense.

Some of the information contained within may be outdated and links may not function. Please contact the DOD Webmaster with any questions. In the summer of , President Kennedy visited Berlin and was greeted by ecstatic crowds who showered his entourage with flowers, rice, and torn paper. In the Rudolph Wilde Platz, Kennedy gave one of his most memorable speeches to a rapt audience. There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world.

Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass'sie nach Berlin kommen.

No other American politician had met with such joy and enthusiasm on a visit to Germany. Shortly after President Kennedy's death in November of , the square where he had made his famous speech was renamed the John F.

Kennedy Platz. Skip past main navigation. JFK in History. Life of John F. Kennedy Life of Jacqueline B. Kennedy on the Economy and Taxes John F. Kennedy and the Press John F. Kennedy and PT John F. The Cold War in Berlin. Two years after the construction of the Berlin Wall, President Kennedy paid a historic visit to Berlin to challenge Soviet oppression and offer hope to the people of the divided city.

In an address to the American people on July 25 , President Kennedy announced that the United States might need to defend its rights in Berlin militarily: So long as the communists insist that they are preparing to end by themselves unilaterally our rights in West Berlin and our commitments to its people, we must be prepared to defend those rights and those commitments.