Longtime readers of this blog may remember that my very first post was devoted to a commemoration of the Berlin airlift as an enduring example of U.S. aid and assistance to other countries, even former enemies. As the calendar brings us around again to the anniversary of the airlift I’d like to call your attention to this BBC News report on the 60th anniversary ceremonies in Berlin, noting the historical background:

The Soviet leader ordered all road, rail and river links into West Berlin through Soviet-controlled eastern Germany to be closed. The city, he thought, would rather embrace the Soviet forces than go hungry; the British, American and French troops would surely abandon West Berlin. Instead, the Western Allies launched the biggest airlift in history. Over a period of 11 months, British, American and French pilots flew more than 200,000 missions into West Berlin, bringing food and fuel and machinery. At times the planes were landing every two minutes.

In hindsight, history seems so very certain, yet there was nothing certain at the time about the airlift, it was a daring and dangerous response to the Soviet blockade and lives were saved (and lost) in the operation. The report closes with a quote from a German who makes it clear that the allied assistance forever changed the views of the defeated Germans who went from seeing the allies as occupiers to seeing them as friends.