USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Stalin did not want the Berlin Airlift. “Stalin got exactly the opposite of what he wanted, ” Harrison says. “He was essentially, with the blockade, trying to stop the creation of a West German state. Well, he got the creation of a West German state, and a Western military alliance.”

Detailed explanation-2: -Stalin was powerless to stop the Berlin Airlift. To shoot down the planes could have provoked World War Three, and at this stage, unlike the USA, the USSR did not have nuclear weapons.

Detailed explanation-3: -Truman’s administration called for a direct military response. Truman, however, did not want to cause World War III. Instead, he ordered a massive airlift of supplies into West Berlin. On June 26, 1948, the first planes took off from bases in England and western Germany and landed in West Berlin.

Detailed explanation-4: -The crisis started on June 24, 1948, when Soviet forces blockaded rail, road, and water access to Allied-controlled areas of Berlin. The United States and United Kingdom responded by airlifting food and fuel to Berlin from Allied airbases in western Germany.