Another Test for the Allies
HURWITZ, HAROLD
Action could begin gradually. West-Berlin products require for transport to the West the stamp of Soviet approval. With this function in his hands, Ulbricht could prevent delivery of products...
...For weeks these men tried to convince the U. S. and British military governors that the city—and much more—would be lost if they excluded Berlin from the reform...
...The retort that long before such a state of affairs has been reached, the Western powers would be forced to take decisive action is undoubtedly true but scarcely comforting...
...Without the blockade...
...Foreign airlines, which transport thousands of refugees to Western Germany each week, could be forbidden to cross the "Democratic Republic.'' And in a gracious gesture Ulbricht might abolish the air-corridor limitations for all but U. S. and British military aircraft, announcing that henceforth traffic to Berlin should be conducted by the "Germans themselves''—with airlines operating under Communist supervision...
...Reluctant action would involve more risk, and more cost, than is called for now...
...German democratic leaders today face a situation in Berlin similar to the one that existed a month before the 1948 blockade...
...Nothing indicates that Khrushchev intends to provoke determined opposition in this round...
...In the first phase of the present crisis, Berlin's powerful and loyal friends have taken no overt steps indicating that they are prepared for an offensive of this type...
...Months before the June 1948 blockade started, Stalin's desire to incorporate West Berlin first into the economy of the Soviet Zone and then into its political system had become apparent...
...This, he said, particularly applies to the Bundesrepublik and to the three Western powers...
...However, it is unlikely that Soviet leaders will repeat their 1948 mistake...
...Only in March 1949 did the Western Allies submit to Reuter's urgent pleas and declare the West Mark sole legal tender in West Berlin...
...Their democratically elected Government would either have to go begging to Pankow or return its democratic mandate in protest to the three Western powers who guaranteed the city's democratic constitution which they now are unable to enforce...
...It is more useful to recognize the logical consequences of Khrushchev's proposal and to recall that it is a very subtle strategy for securing th...
...When it was announced that a Soviet note was being prepared which would annul the four-power status of Berlin, the effected governments did not declare that such a note would not be accepted, or that such a violation of international agreements would lead to the severance of diplomatic relations...
...The currency would be undermined in West Berlin and its economy gradually integrated into that of the Soviet Zone...
...But for nine blockaded months it remained a scarce rival to the East Mark in a dual-currency system that wrought havoc with the city's economy...
...With this function in his hands, Ulbricht could prevent delivery of products which he claims his "Democratic Republic'' needs and is anxious to buy...
...Democratic leadership in Berlin faces a situation similar to that of May 1948...
...The Neu...
...This hypothetical—but probable—• development could transpire with the Western Allies maintaining token military forces in their sectors of the city...
...This achievement is at stake today...
...Washington, London, Paris and Bonn must be prepared-to deal with a more subtle Soviet strategy than a blockade and to prevent its consequences before they begin to materialize...
...Had it not been for Stalin's gigantic miscalculation—which was the blockade itself—Berlin would have been captured then, slowly and coldly, in a way not very different from the design for conquest now being pursued...
...Urging Berliners to keep cool nerves, West Berlin's astute young Mayor, Willy Brandt, has warned that it would be folly to stare at Moscow like bewitched children, waiting to see what surprise the Russians will pull out of "the Kremlin's Christmas stocking...
...The people of West Berlin would be robbed of their right to self-determin a t i on...
...West Berlin would never have had an opportunity to build its economy on a hard currency and as an integral part of the Bundesrepublik...
...A policy of "wait and see" has prevailed...
...Leader...
...Only after the Soviets had declared the entire city a part of the Soviet Zone, and after a separate currency-reform agreement for the city could not be reached, was the new Deutsche Mark permitted to circulate in West Berlin...
...These forces would be isolated from a population that feels betrayed, powerless to provide protection from Communist violations of liberty and law in West Berlin which would certainly follow on the heels of economic strangulation...
...same go als Stalin pursued—too clumsily—in 1948...
...In May 1948, a group of far-sighted Social Democrats around the late Mayor Ernst Reuter learned that the Western powers did not intend to include West Berlin in the West German currency-reform...
...The issues involved must be thought out and faced...
...At Western zonal border points imports to Berlin could be inspected and sent back with the argument Berlin should purchase these things from the "German Democratic Republic...
...At a later stage, problems of air traffic to and from Berlin might be "remedied...
...Confidence in West Berlin's economy would be quickly destroyed by such measures...
...The worst that 2.5 million West Berliners have to fear today is the prospect of the Western powers replying to a Soviet declaration with a vividly worded protest and then settling down comfortably i,n the illusion that a blockade has been avoided and the status-quo preserved by letting Ulbrichts tin soldiers replace Soviet posts at border points between West Berlin and the free world...
Vol. 41 • December 1956 • No. 45
