I’d like to begin this blog about the U.S. Role by using this first post to look back to a time when the U.S. aided a former enemy and helped lay the foundation for the post-WWII era in world affairs (International Herald Tribune - Germany remember Berlin airlift on 60th anniversary):

Germany on Thursday commemorated the 60th anniversary of the start of the Berlin airlift, celebrating an unprecedented undertaking that probably saved the city from falling to the Soviet Union and helped mend German-American relations after World War II. Often called the first battle of the Cold War, the airlift pitted the United States and the Soviet Union against each other for the first time and set the tone for the decades to come.

Imagine for a moment a world still reeling from the damage of WWII as the U.S. stepped up to airlift food, medicine and supplies to the besieged citizens of Berlin. If public opinion had been as active then, if there had been bloggers, would war-weary people have supported such a daring and certainly dangerous humanitarian mission? U.S. intervention is often cast in negative terms these days, so I thought perhaps this first post might take a moment to look back to a time when international issues seemed to allow for greater moral clarity than do many of the issues we face today. The Berlin Airlift is remembered as a shining moment of American resolve against the Soviet Union, which set the stage for later Cold War confrontations, and as an example of the kinds of humanitarian assistance that the U.S. went on to extend to many nations (most recently in China and Myanmar) in times of trouble.