dnapped and disappear into the Soviet zones (Walton 59). The spy organizations of both sides were waging a side war of their own.In March of 1949, talks between American ambassador, Philip Jessup, and Russian ambassador, Jacov Malik, came to an interesting climax. Malik told Jessup that if a definite date were set for a foreign ministers meeting, the Soviet Union would end the blockade. The foreign ministers meeting was set for May 23. On May 5, Washington, London, Paris and Moscow announced that the blockade was to be lifted on May 12 (Walton 59).The Soviet blockade of 324 days had failed. Stalin was forced to admit his defeat and lifted the blockade on the set date of May 12. It is clear now that Stalin had made a blunder, and perhaps if the Russians had slowly eaten away at West Berlin (as they did later on), their success would have been greater.Western efforts saved the two million citizens of West Berlin. Over 277,728 flights carrying over 2,380,794 tons of supplies and food were flown into Gatow airport during the eleven month period (Heater 17). The airlift also proved to be free of military conflicts, aside from some Russian harassment of Allied planes flying to Berlin, but no planes were shot down or damaged by the Soviets intentionally. There were, however, several accidents. Almost 100 American, British, and French airmen gave up their lives for the freedom of Berlin (Lukacs 75).Because of the blockade, West Germany became closer to the West and moved further away from Communist Russia. American air power in Europe grew tremendously because of this.Within months of the airlift, West and East Germany became separate countries. Western powers stayed true to their word and created the German Federal Republic out of Western Germany in late May of 1949. The Soviets turned Eastern Germany into the German Democratic Republic, (Layman 256).The Berlin blockade was the first conflict since World War II that could have caused...
