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Article: 1948: the Berlin airlift: in one of the first confrontations of the cold war the U.S. began a yearlong airlift of food and aid to West Berlin after the Soviet Union blockaded the city.(TIMES PAST)
- Article from:
- New York Times Upfront
- Article date:
- September 22, 2008
- Author:
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"An iron curtain has descended across the continent," Winston Churchill declared in 1946. Behind that curtain, the former British Prime Minister said, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and the other nations of Central and Eastern Europe had come under the control of the Soviet Union and its ruthless dictator, Joseph Stalin.
At the time, "iron curtain" was just a metaphor, but two years later, in June 1948, it became a reality when the Soviets literally tried to cut off West Berlin--located deep within Communist East Germany--with a blockade designed to starve the city into submission.
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