After World War II, President Harry Truman feared that the Soviet Union would spread communism across Western Europe. In 1947, he announced the Truman Doctrine, which stated that the United States would support countries that were threatened by communist aggression. But Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin saw the Truman Doctrine, and the American aid that flowed into the continent through the Marshall Plan, as risking his hold over communist Eastern Europe. He feared that Germany, which had been disarmed and divided into U.S, British, French and Soviet zones after the war, might be reunified under full Western control.
However, Stalin saw a pressure point: the German capital of Berlin. Like Germany itself, Berlin had been divided into Western- and Eastern-controlled zones, but the city was also located deep within the Soviet-controlled sector of Germany. So, in late June of 1948, he ordered a blockade of highway, railway and canal traffic into West Berlin.
The goal was to force the Allies out of the war-torn city, stop the possible unification of an independent West Germany (and ultimately, a reunified Germany), and prevent the development of a U.S. alliance with Western Europe. But the move backfired as the United States, along with its British and French allies, began to accomplish what had at first seemed impossible: airlifting enough food and fuel to keep an estimated 2.5 million West Berliners alive.
The Allied project was soon perceived as a beacon of hope across much of Communist-controlled Eastern Europe. That reputation only grew after an American airlift pilot, Lt. Gail Halvorsen, moved by the sight of hungry German children surrounding the Berlin airbase, began dropping chocolate bars and gum in homemade parachutes as he flew in supplies.
The goodwill gesture caught on with other pilots, who became known as “candy bombers.” Supplied by U.S. candymakers, they eventually parachuted in approximately 23 tons of sweets to German children.
The airlift grew to become the largest air relief operation in history, forcing the Soviets to end the 11-month blockade on May 13, 1949. By the time the airlift wound down on Sept. 30, 1949, some 2.3 million tons of food, coal and other supplies had been delivered to the beleaguered city.
The effort preserved West Berlin, and set the stage for the establishment of West Germany. It also helped spur the rise of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alliance committed to protecting Western Europe that continues today.