Course Details

9793: History and Relevance of the Berlin Airlift

February 12-13
1:45 PM - 3:15 PM
Online

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This course covers the end of WWII in Europe in a Germany with American, British, Russian, and (later) French occupation zones along with an isolated Berlin divided the same way. When Allied cooperation agreed to at Yalta and Potsdam broke down, Stalin's Russia imposed a blockade in June 1948. To avoid abandonment of Berlin, the only alternative was supply by air. Doing so for a city of over two million required a minimum lift of 3.5k tons per day. It ultimately proved possible to deliver nearly four times that amount, forcing Stalin to end the blockade in May 1949. The course explores how this feat was accomplished, and its impact on development of US/Europe history, civil Air Traffic Control, and US military airlift capability.

Class Type: Lecture and Discussion

Class Format: Online

Hours of Reading: No reading

Study Group Leader(s):

Peter Keller

Peter R. Keller retired from the State Department after a Foreign Service career of 26 years with postings to Mexico, Germany, Chile, Switzerland (US Mission to UN, Geneva), and Belgium, plus post retirement work with the Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls and its Political-Military Action Team that served as the State-DoD interface during the Iraq War. He is a graduate of Brown University, and earned an MA in international relations from American University's School of International Service and an MA in economics from the University of Colorado.

Reading List: