The airlift operation was called “Operation Vittles.” Massive ten ton capacity C-54s began to supply the 2,500,000 civilians in western Berlin with food. Soon enough, planes were flying into Berlin every 3 minutes delivering 5,000 tons of food, a day! In May 1949, Stalin had little choice but to lift the blockade.
However shocking this may seem, I think personally, it doesn’t even come into the same league as the Cuban Missile Crisis.
On October 22nd, 1962, a U2 spy plane photographed evidence that showed the Soviet Union building secret missile bases on Cuba, just 90 miles away from the coast of Florida. Kennedy was produced with a number of solutions, each one with its practicalities, and severe risks. It was down to Kennedy to weigh out his options, and decide between an armed invasion, an air strike on all missile bases or a naval blockade of all further nuclear weapons entering the country. With an invasion, Russian troops would be killed, and Khrushchev would be sure to retaliate Soviet loses. An air strike wouldn’t guarantee the destruction of all missiles, any remaining could easily be launched, and again retaliation from the USSR would be expected. Therefore, J. F. Kennedy decided to enforce a naval blockade, whilst political solutions were traded. In the end, an agreement was reached by the two countries. The missiles on Cuba were dismantled and shipped back to the Soviet Union. In return, America had to retrieve their missiles from Turkey.
What was a bigger threat to world peace, “The Berlin Blockade” or “The Cuban Missile Crisis?”
Although Stalin enforced the Berlin blockade, a ruthless modern attempt to cause mass famine to achieve political power, I think that the Cuban missile crisis was a lot more serious. Not only was the hold world holding its breath for seven days, but even the strongest political powers on earth were quiet and bewildered. The options that Kennedy was produced with were complicated, and the aftermath could have been devastating. Had Kennedy chosen to launch an armed invasion, Khrushchev gave orders that nuclear missiles should be fired at America. An air strike would only have lead to many more problems. The blockade was risky, whether or not the Soviet ships would stop at the line was unsure, and if they didn’t the American ships would have to retaliate or else they would appear incredibly weak, with no backup to their authority. The Soviet ships did stop however. But when trying to compromise, denial to the UN and inconsiderable alternative cooperation’s occurred, making everything very difficult. In the end an agreement was reached and the world could breathe again. Despite the shocking motives of the Berlin Blockade, at no point was there such a difficult decision to make, like the one made by Kennedy in October 1962. The Berlin Blockade was nowhere near being such a tense situation as the Cuban missile crisis, and at no point in history has the world been so close to nuclear war.
