Berlin Blockade
... This date might not mean much to someone, but to the starving citizens of Berlin, it meant peace; a peace that they had not experienced in more than a year. On June 24, 1948, the Soviets announced that there would be a blockade of all road, water, and rail traffic in and out of West Berlin, and all electric power from East to West Berlin would be cut off. It seemed to be that the Soviets were not ready to reach an agreement to end this blockade. ... Truman handled the Berlin Blockade successfully by negotiating with the Russians, reinforcing the United States forces in Europe, and supplying Berliners by aircraft. ... In September the negotiations were transferred back to military governors in Berlin; however, these negotiations failed because the Russians insisted they had the right to use the air corridors to the city, and this enabled them to be a nuisance to the air lift. ... By the spring of 1949 it was evident that the Western nations were not going to leave Berlin or to give substantial concessions to Moscow on German questions. By April, the Soviet Union had indicated that it was ready to lift the blockade, because it was no longer serving any purpose; by May the Russians ended their restrictions on transportation and communications between Berlin and West Germany in exchange for a promise by its previous Western Allies to discuss German issues.