Editing Cold War (1948–1953) (section)

===Berlin Blockade===
[[File:C-54landingattemplehof.jpg|thumb|Berliners watching a C-54 land at Tempelhof Airport (1948)]]
{{Main|Berlin Blockade}}

After the [[Marshall Plan]], the introduction of a new currency to Western Germany to replace the debased [[Reichsmark]] and massive electoral losses for communist parties in 1946, in June 1948, the Soviet Union cut off surface road access to [[Berlin]].

On the day of the Berlin Blockade, a Soviet representative told the other occupying powers  "We are warning both you and the population of Berlin that we shall apply economic and administrative sanctions that will lead to circulation in Berlin exclusively of the currency of the Soviet occupation zone."<ref name="miller32">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|p=32}}</ref>

Thereafter, street and water communications were severed, rail and barge traffic was stopped and the Soviets initially stopped supplying food to the civilian population in the non-Soviet sectors of Berlin.<ref name="miller25">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|pp=25–31}}</ref>  Because Berlin was located within the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany and the other occupying powers had previously relied on Soviet good will for access to Berlin, the only available methods of supplying the city were three limited air corridors.<ref name="miller6">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|pp=6–7}}</ref>

By February 1948, because of massive post-war military cuts, the entire United States army had been reduced to 552,000 men.<ref name="miller28">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|p=28}}</ref>  Military forces in non-Soviet Berlin sectors totaled only 8,973 Americans, 7,606 British and 6,100 French.<ref name="miller33">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|p=33}}</ref>  Soviet military forces in the Soviet sector that surrounded Berlin totaled one and a half million men.<ref name="miller30">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|p=30}}</ref> The two United States regiments in Berlin would have provided little resistance against a Soviet attack.<ref name="miller29">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|p=29}}</ref> Believing that Britain, France and the United States had little option other than to acquiesce, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany celebrated the beginning of the blockade.<ref name="miller35">{{Harvnb|Miller|2000|p=35}}</ref> Thereafter, a massive aerial supply campaign of food, water and other goods was initiated by the United States, Britain, France and other countries.<ref name=mac>''MAC and the Legacy of the Berlin Airlift''</ref> The Soviets derided "the futile attempts of the Americans to save face and to maintain their untenable position in Berlin."<ref name=indiana>[http://www.indianamilitary.org/ATTERBURYAAF/History/BerlinAirlift.html ''Fifty years ago, a massive airlift into Berlin showed the Soviets that a post-WW II blockade would not work''], C.V. Glines</ref> The success of the airlift eventually caused the Soviets to lift their blockade in May 1949.

However, the Soviet Army was still capable of conquering Western Europe without much difficulty. In September 1948, US military intelligence experts estimated that the Soviets had about 485,000 troops in their German occupation zone and in Poland, and some 1.785 million troops in Europe in total.<ref>[https://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/usarmyczechoslovakia.aspx From Liberation to Confrontation: The U.S. Army and Czechoslovakia 1945 to 1948 ]</ref> At the same time, the number of US troops in 1948 was about 140,000.<ref>[https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1758.html Berlin Airlift]</ref>