The Untold Story of the Berlin Aircraft and America's Finest Hour
February 18, 2008
In 1948, West Berliners were suffering and hungry, existing on food rations transported by trucks, trains and barges primarily by the occupying American forces. The Russians, trying to control the divided city, blockaded the transports on June 24, 1948, and American and British pilots risked their lives to airlift in 4.6 billion pounds of food and supplies until the blockade was lifted in May 1949. Pilot Hal Halvorsen won Berliners' hearts by secretly dropping his and his buddies' candy rations by parachute into the waiting hands of the city's children. In the process, says Cherny (The Next Deal
), Berliners became devoted to democracy, and Washington foreign policy and military brass learned that the Cold War needed to be won not primarily with bullets but by appealing to hearts and minds. This book could have been cut by a third for better effect; Cherny's prose and his references to 9/11 are manipulative, and his subject, particularly the nuts and bolts of the airlift, will appeal primarily to WWII buffs, who should still find much to savor in this exhaustive, often absorbing and lucid account of America's successful standoff against the Soviets. 16 pages of b&w photos.
March 1, 2008
After World War II, as the Cold War began poisoning international relationships, the United States had to figure out what its postwar role would be. Its greatest army had largely disbanded, an unpopular President was still struggling to articulate a world policy, and a newly nuclear-armed foe, recently an ally, was occupying half of Europe. Cherny ("The Next Deal"), a former speechwriter for Al Gore, spends much of this book explaining how postwar Berlin became a crisis point and the reaction of the Western Allies to the Soviet threat and blockade of West Berlin. In immense, mind-deadening detail, he recounts the successes of the Berlin Airlift (June 1948May 1949) in response to the Soviet blockade. He covers its management by Gen. William Tunner, who had run the great Chinese airlift in the final year of World War II, as well as the experiences and concerns of some of the pilots and the technical problems that arose. The political story is interwoven with the story of Secretary of Defense James Forrestal's mental and physical collapse, the disagreements between George Marshall and Truman, and the ambivalence of the American public. Recommended for subject collections, particularly where related resources are available.Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, KS
Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
March 15, 2008
Accounts abound about the Berlin crisis and airliftof 194849, when the West thwarted the attempted Soviet takeover of the entire city. To distinguish his book from the pack, Chernyplaces his emphasis on the episodes political effects in Washington, D.C. Ultimately, argues Cherny, Harry Trumans decisiveness, above all his rejection of high-level advice to retreat from Berlin, contributed to his victory in the 1948 presidential election, a case he makes in recounting junctions between the political campaigns and players in the Berlin crisis. Sufficient as this would be for book-level treatment, Cherny augments his text with the organizationof the airlift operation. Perhaps justified because of the airlifts tremendous material and propaganda success, which drew the Wests line against further Communist expansion in Europe, including the airlift narrative nonetheless competes with Chernys announced angle on the impactof theSoviet blockadeon American politics and foreign policy. Emphasizing figures prominent in the crisismilitary governor Lucius Clay, Truman critic Henry Wallace, and pilot Gail HalvorsenCherny readably synthesizes this milestone cold-war confrontation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)