[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 59 (Tuesday, May 12, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E829-E830]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BERLIN AIRLIFT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 12, 1998

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, in just a few days President Clinton will be 
in Berlin to mark the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift. Just last 
week, I joined a number of my colleagues in preparing a CARE package to 
mark this anniversary. These CARE packages will be sent to Berlin for 
the 50th anniversary celebrations of the airlift, and then they will be 
shipped on to Afghanistan to provide assistance to the Afghani people 
who have been devastated by twenty years of war and turmoil.
  Mr. Speaker, it is particularly appropriate that we remember and 
reflect upon the Berlin Airlift and the significance of that event in 
United States foreign policy as we mark the half century anniversary of 
this event. It was one of the most critical steps in defining the 
American response to the Soviet Union and in establishing the 
parameters of United States policy in the Cold War.
  All of us are familiar with the story of the Berlin Airlift. In the 
spring of 1948, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin began a campaign to force 
the Western Allies from the occupied city of Berlin, which was isolated 
inside East Germany, some 150 miles behind the Iron Curtain. In a 
concerted effort to consolidate his hold over all of Central and 
Eastern Europe, he pressed to eliminate this island of democracy inside 
the Soviet occupation zone.
  Mr. Speaker, as the occupation of Germany began at the end of World 
War II, the United States, Britain and France had negotiated air 
corridors to fly over the Soviet zone in order

[[Page E830]]

to reach their sectors of occupied Berlin. Negotiations on land access 
via autobahn, railroad, and barge were begun but never completed 
because of the deterioration of relations with the Soviet Union.
  On June 11, 1948, Soviet military authorities halted Allied and 
German freight traffic to Berlin for two days. This was the beginning 
of a campaign of harassment and bullying that continued for the next 
two weeks. On June 18, the three Western Allies--the United States, 
Britain, and France--announced the establishment of a critically 
important currency reform that paved the way for Germany's post-war 
economic recovery. Soviet authorities protested the currency reform and 
announced that they would not participate. On June 22, following a 
meeting of the four occupying powers, Soviet authorities announced that 
they would proceed with a separate currency reform in their own zone of 
occupation. The Western Allies reaffirmed their intention to proceed 
with their planned reform.
  On June 24, 1948, Soviet military authorities enforced a complete 
prohibition of all ground transportation to and from the western 
sectors of Berlin--freight and passenger by highway, railroad, and 
water. The following day, June 25, Soviet authorities served notice 
that they would not supply food to the Western occupation zones of the 
city. That very day, the first eight British Royal Air Force aircraft 
arrived in the British sector of Berlin to commence airlift operations. 
The Berlin airlift formally began on June 26 with 22 flights of United 
States C-47 aircraft carrying 80 tons of supplies from Wiesbaden in the 
U.S. occupation zone to Berlin's Tempelhof airfield.
  Mr. Speaker, over the next 320 days--until May 12, 1949, when Soviet 
authorities reopened ground routes to Berlin--the United States and 
Great Britain carried out a massive airlift bringing in all of the food 
and other supplies necessary to maintain the 2.1 million people living 
in the Western Allied occupation zones of Berlin.
  The effort was truly remarkable. By February of 1949 the U.S. Air 
Force and the Royal Air Force were delivering nearly 8,000 tons daily--
the equivalent of 530 German rail carloads of supplies. All kinds of 
commodities were transported to the city in order to maintain the 
health and well-being of its citizens. Two-thirds of the material 
carried to Berlin was coal--the fuel necessary to maintain the western 
zones of the city. Less than one-third of the material carried to 
Berlin was food--slightly more than one pound per person per day, which 
provided the West Berliners with a nourishing, though monotonous, diet. 
Some 7 percent of the total goods transported were industrial raw 
materials, in order to maintain the economy of the city, liquid fuel, 
and other items.
  Mr. Speaker, the cost of operating the airlift was high for all 
involved. West Berliners suffered to maintain their freedom. Their 
privation was real. Despite the airlift, food and fuel was scarce. 
Unemployment rose steadily throughout the period of the airlift because 
industries did not have sufficient fuel and raw materials to maintain 
their operations. The American and the British people paid an estimated 
$200 million to operate the airlift over the 320 days that it 
functioned. Considering the massive scale of the operation, it was 
remarkably safe. Nevertheless, 76 people died in airlift operations, 
including 31 American servicemen.
  The airlift was an example of one of the finest efforts of the United 
States military forces. The logistics requirements were extraordinary. 
Aircraft had to be gathered from American bases around the world, 
pilots had to be trained, ground crews coordinated. The Tempelhof 
airfield in Berlin was inadequate to the task, and it had to be 
expanded and rebuilt at the same time that aircraft were using the 
runways around the clock. Throughout this massive effort American and 
British military forces worked side by side.
  General George C. Marshall served as our Secretary of State at the 
time of the Berlin Airlift, and he played a critical role in the 
decision to establish the airlift. Robert H. Ferrell, in his biography 
of General Marshall, put the importance of the Berlin Airlift in 
context:

       The City [of Berlin] was a symbol of the division of 
     Germany. Its continued independence . . . gave evidence of 
     the will power of the Western nations on the whole German 
     question and even more: if Berlin went completely to the 
     Russians, all Germany could follow, and such a procession of 
     calamities might collapse Western Europe.

  Mr. Speaker, the Berlin Airlift was a critical event that helped to 
cement the friendship of the American and the German people following 
World War II. In 1994, then Secretary of State Warren Christopher told 
a German audience at the Berlin Airlift memorial at Tempelhof Airport:

       Americans remember the airlift as the bridge that joined us 
     as kindred nations, prepared to stand firm in defiance of 
     tyranny, prepared to endure hardship in defense of liberty. 
     This legacy outlasted the airlift, the division of Germany 
     and, ultimately, the Cold War itself.

  The Berlin Airlift was a critical step in establishing the United 
States response to the Soviet Union at the critical opening stage of 
the Cold War. President Harry S. Truman, who directed that the airlift 
be established when Soviet forces attempted to isolate and engulf 
Berlin, established the fundamental U.S. posture--a firm but measured 
response to efforts to extend Soviet authority.
  As we look back from the perspective of half a century, Mr. Speaker, 
President Truman and his outstanding Secretary of State, General George 
C. Marshall, were responsible for setting United States policy toward 
the Soviet Union. That policy was followed by every President and 
Secretary of State--both Republican and Democratic--for the next forty 
years.
  When we applaud the fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening of the 
iron curtain, Mr. Speaker, it is Harry Truman whom we must thank. He 
did not live to see the triumph of the wise policies that he set in 
place, but we as Americans are now living in a new and safer world that 
was shaped and largely brought about through the genius and foresight 
of Harry Truman and George C. Marshall.
  Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in commemorating one 
of the critical events of this century--the 50th anniversary of the 
Berlin Airlift.

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