 This was the city 30 years ago, a city then one of the greatest in the world, in size and stature, ranking with London, Paris, Rome, New York, and a unity. This was Berlin in the 1930s. No barriers at the Brandenburger Tor, no guards at the Potsdamer Platz, but this was Berlin before Hitler came to power. 1945, and this was Berlin, a city in name only, a geographical location, destruction, the flags of the victors, men who taken up arms and self-defense were the common aim to destroy that which menaced them all. Around them, a defeated nation, for their armies had met in the very middle of Germany. Until such time as Germany could reshape her own destiny, she would be divided into separate zones of occupation, each controlled by an allied power, American, British, French, Russian. Economically, she would be treated as a whole. This the victors had agreed when they had met to decide the future of Germany. Even then, some had reservations about mutual trust, but a world war just over, they had to trust one another, or else begin another war. For Berlin, it was to be each power with its sector, that a city open to all the powers until Berlin could again assume her role as the capital of a new German state. Berlin lay 100 miles deep in the Soviet occupation zone, but was not part of it. Access to the city for the other powers was agreed over certain roads, railways, and three air corridors, makeshift perhaps, but then it was never meant to be permanent. In Berlin, they set up the headquarters of an allied commander, Tura, where day by day, officers of the four occupying powers would administer Berlin by cooperation, by joint agreement as to what was to be done and how. And frankly, what was to be done meant starting again from scratch. Yet amid the ruins and the deprivation, slowly a start was made, a start not only upon the physical reconstruction, but also the political rebirth of the city. It would appear that the Soviets had agreed to joint occupation only because they believed that in the first three elections, Berlin would vote communist. So it was with confidence that they watched the democratic processes of free ballot. And although communist support in Berlin was far from negligible, for them the results came as a shock. Instead of a landslide for the extreme left, there came instead a victory for the social democrats and other non-communists. But when in June 1947, the town assembly elected Ernst Reuter for mayor, this proved to be a victory without fruit. For in the allied commander, Tura, the frustrated Soviets vetoed his election. It was a step, ominous and foreboding. Until that moment, the city had been divided in name only. But from then on, the Russians made the divisions a more clear cut. They set up a communist system in their own sector and established decided barriers between it and those of their recent allies. These were the years in which the expression iron curtain became a reality. Along a line from the Baltic to the Balkans, a clamp down. In place of the comradeship of victory, barbed wire, suspicion and distrust, years of disillusionment. Meanwhile, over the frontier paths, there flowed a steady stream of refugees east to west. Soon it became clear that most were moving westwards because they could not tolerate life in the east. Again, an ominous sign. In the eastern sector of Berlin, communist power was fully established. Party bosses, party youth, party rallies, permeated with all the hysteria previously associated with the Nazis. By organizing special police and paramilitary units, the Soviets were illegally re-arming East Germany. In the world councils of the United Nations, the war weary were endeavoring to establish a lasting peace. But these were the days of Stalinist expansion. And so, by repeated refusal to cooperate, except on their own terms, the Soviet delegates sabotaged any progress towards real stability. On the 23rd of June, 1948, West Berlin introduced monetary reform, without which economic recovery would have been impossible. New notes for old. The currency was revalued. For the Russians, their disagreement gave them the excuse for action. West Berlin, they could not touch. But they could and did interfere with the lifelines on which West Berlin depended. The roads, the railways, the canals, these were West Berlin's vital arteries. So, stop the trade, close the roads, bar the canals and cut the power. West Berlin was 100 miles deep in the Soviet zone of Germany. This was to be the way to force the western allies to quit Berlin. Thus, two million people were isolated, to be faced with the prospect of hunger, cold, unemployment and misery. No way in, no way out. The only element still open, the air above. It started as a trickle, as a temporary measure. Destination, the airfields of West Berlin. The vital necessities, food, raw materials, even coal brought in by air, until the United States, Great Britain and France were embarked upon the biggest air transport operation history has ever seen. Plane after plane, even flying boats to set down on West Berlin's lakes. In the beleaguered city, power shortage enforced skeleton transport services. Food shortage necessitated careful distribution and cues. But rather short measure than surrender. As each night fell, the roar of aero engines continued. Dependent for the most part on power from the eastern sector, West Berlin was plunged each night into a blackout. But while West Berliners felt their way through the gloom, still their airlift continued through the hours of darkness. When West Berliners rose each dawn, it was again to the roar of planes. But because of those planes, there was bread in the shops. And this was to be the pattern for many a hard month ahead. It was to be expected that the Soviets would not take the airlift without some reaction. Across the eastern boundary, the communists staged demonstrations against what they called this western interference with Berlin affairs. These in turn led to riots that forced the non-communist councillors to abandon the Berlin town hall, which lay in the eastern sector. But in the western sectors, unity against the blockade was overwhelming, symbolized by the leadership of Ernst Reuter. Any joint administration of Berlin as a whole had already ceased to exist, a fact emphasized by the abandonment by the Russians of the Allied Kommandatura. City government for greater Berlin was impossible, since the western councillors had been driven from the east. So Reuter and the non-communists moved into new quarters in the west. And at their meetings, empty chairs stood witness to the fact that the east Berliners were denied the right to choose their representatives freely. For the west, the Berlin blockade came as the last straw. Soviet behaviour had demonstrated that no one was safe. After much negotiation, 12 nations came together to form an alliance for collective defence. Its name, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or as it came to be known, NATO. Together in Washington in April 1949, they put the seal on their union. They were resolved, as they put it, to unite their efforts for collective defence and the preservation of peace and security. It was to be the end of leaning over backwards in the face of consistent Soviet expansion. Meanwhile for west Berlin, it had been a tough winter, airfields, fog, mist, and freezing cold. Yet in spite of the conditions the airlift had carried on, in spite of the conditions and the losses of the airlift, west Berlin had been kept alive, but only at a cost. All the sufferings of war in the midst of peace, but there could be no turning back now. If the Russians thought that the city could not be supplied indefinitely by air, they were going to be proved very wrong. For the airlift, all possible reinforcement. More planes. Improved runways. Greater facilities. And so what had begun as makeshift became routine. Month in, month out. Soon it became clear that the west had not only won a victory against logistics, but also a model victory which drew the admiration of the world. Thanks, the crews of the airlift. Victory through determination to defend the right. Meanwhile, a series of signatures on a piece of paper had slowly but surely turned into practical steps towards military cooperation and collective rearmament within NATO. Indeed, the growth of unity in the west was such that the Russians, those still breathing threats, realized that their pressure was inducing the very opposite of that disunity on which they counted. And so for the free world and historic night. The night when on the out of barn, leading to west Berlin, the barriers were pushed aside for the first time in nine months. As the trucks and cars streamed forward, so the railway destination boards read once again, this train for Berlin. But if the Russians believed that the lifting of the blockade would cause the west to lower its guard, they were mistaken. NATO had been born and until the east displayed a vastly different spirit, NATO was to stay. No stopping now. As yet, the forces were still weak, but as soon as possible they must be built up a strong defensive shield. And what now of Berlin? Mayor Reuter and the Berliners, having one with western helped the battle of the blockade, now began the process of placing west Berlin onto a basis of economic prosperity. A city still an island linked with the world only by the arteries whose continued existence had been so hardly one. West Berlin was to draw strength to make itself no longer just a fragment of the city, but a unity within itself. Yet still across Berlin as a whole, there was much traffic over the borders. On the overhead and underground railways, Berliners came and went. True, the sector boundaries still loomed up, but they did not prevent passage across the city, though it was passage under difficulties. At the eastern sector border, the trams, though continuing on, nonetheless were forced to change both drivers and conductors. While at this border too, anyone passing had first to change his money, for the east did not accept western marks and vice versa, but at the Potsdamerplatz on the very border itself, watched by the police of both sides, still a steady movement both ways. Why not when all were Berliners? But there were many passing but one way, a steady stream of refugees to the west, a steady stream unceasing since the end of World War II, but growing day by day as life became more intolerable under a communist regime. The island of west Berlin had become the staging point for the free road to the west. To all but the most prejudiced, it was obvious that all was far from perfect beyond the Potsdamerplatz and on the 17th of June 1953 came proof. A protest march of east Berlin workers turned into a general rebellion against the communist regime. For some hours, that regime was helpless against the disorder, until in desperation, they call in the Red Army. And so because stones and courage against tanks are not enough, the revolt died. After the June uprising, the movement of refugees could no longer be termed a stream. It had become a flood. Throughout the western sectors of Berlin, the humming factories were evidence of their rising prosperity. Soon indeed, west Berlin was to become again the most powerful production center in all Germany. But with the confidence, there had been sorrow. Before the beer of Mayor Reuter, crowds passed to pay homage to the man who had helped save their city. Ernst Reuter was dead, but his work was already showing great results. Meanwhile, in these years of uneasy truce, the Soviet Union has systematically turned her zone into a purely communist regime and blocked every attempt to treat Germany as a whole. The three western powers had no alternative but to move forward with the economic unification of their zones. This was followed by political unification. Independence was not long in coming, and there was born a new sovereign state, the Federal Republic of Germany. The status of Berlin, however, was not changed. It remained the responsibility of the four occupying powers and the garrison's state. The guarantee of security for western Germany depended on the overall strength of the Atlantic Alliance. Chancellor Adenauer and the Federal Parliament agreed that the new republic should join NATO, so bringing the organization's strength up to 15 nations. And by now, strength was no misnomer. Although the crisis was far from over, NATO's power was such as to make any aggressor think carefully. Now the west could negotiate from a position of strength and confidence. At the Geneva summit, the Soviets paid lip service to the principle of German reunification, but blocked any practical progress. In those negotiations, all the trying could not break down the iron curtain. But for west Berlin, it would still go ahead. To the traveler flying in, the city displayed a brave new face. First on arrival, he would see the memorial to the airlift, a sign that west Berlin remembers those who won its survival. After that, a new skyline risen from the rubble. If west Berlin has had, as the communists have edged, little hope for the future, it was not apparent in the face of this steadily changing city. In west Berlin, a new look. In east Berlin, from beyond the Potsdamer Platz, still thousands arriving. Still a flood to airlift off the island to find new homes in the west. In the face of continued Soviet obstruction, the 15 NATO nations sought to clear the Soviet's minds as to how the alliance stood on the thorny question of Berlin. Already in 1954, the three powers responsible for Berlin had made it clear beyond doubt that any attack against Berlin from any quarter would be treated as an attack on their forces and on themselves. The other members of NATO immediately associated themselves with this declaration. All proposals made by the Soviets towards solving the question of the reunification of Germany implied a refusal to acknowledge the principle of self-determination by means of free elections to which the west was and is firmly committed. Until such time as the Soviets changed their minds, the NATO nations will stand firm in face of all Soviet pressure and honor their pledge to maintain the freedom of west Berlin and its people. A pledge often repeated at NATO ministerial meetings. So until there was a change of front on the part of the east, it would seem that Germany and Berlin would remain divided. But evidence that the status quo did not suit everybody in the east was the continued flood of refugees passing through to west Berlin. In November 1958, Soviet pressure comes on again. Mr. Khrushchev begins to create his own crisis by threatening to sign a separate peace treaty with the East Germans. Paris, May 1960. Mr. Khrushchev uses the U2 incident to break up the summit conference which was meant to bring the Berlin and German questions nearer to a solution. He drops his threat to take immediate action but does not change his tune. Berlin, he alleges, is the capital of a sovereign east Germany and the Allies must be made to quit Berlin and in re-armed communist Germany, the force is there. Men and armor. June the 4th, 1961. Khrushchev to President Kennedy. Khrushchev repeats his threat to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany which he claims, wrongly, will end all western rights in Berlin. And so on. Move after move until... On the 13th of August 1961, a wall of East German police stands at the Brandenburg Gate. All communication between the eastern sector and those of the west has been cut as though by a knife. Before it, West Berliners stand stunned but soon they give voice to the indignation. All approaches, the only answer, jets of water from eastern armored trucks. Soviet attacks on the rights of the western powers in Berlin showed that the war was meant to be a step towards control of the whole city, towards forcing out the western powers. As the last escape routes were cut one after the other, final strambles. So as not to be left behind in the prison. And this was an exodus not confined merely to the civilians. Even among the East German police guarding and maintaining the new barrier, there were some who decided that they too had reached the end of their teller to cut and run. At protest meetings held in the western sectors, the mayor and people of West Berlin called for help and support from the three western powers. They did not call in vain. Along the outer ban leading to the city came reinforcements for the three western garrisons stationed in Berlin. In all, these garrisons number only 12,000 men, a small force compared with the massive weight of the 20 Soviet divisions which surround the city. A force so small that it gives the lie to Soviet charges that Berlin is an aggressive western base. But these reinforcements were the symbols of western determination. They demonstrated to the Soviet Union that any aggression threatening the life of West Berlin could bring it to play all the defensive power of the West. A firm stand, so far and no further. Brick by brick, until no contact but a friendly wave. When Chancellor Adenauer visited the crisis area, he was met not only by radio truck insults but literally by a wall. But a wall can never create a permanent prison for the human spirit. Its strength is measured only by the fears of those who build it. By night, by tunnels, somehow a few still managed to make their escape. Though others failed and failed riddled with East German bullets. For the East, the wall is evidence of how they would like to treat the whole of Berlin. Of their kind of settlement of the Berlin problem. So that this today is the Potsdamer Platz, where freedom like the trams comes to the end of the line. But for the West, such settlements are unacceptable. Ever since the Atlantic Alliance was created, it has striven to resolve all problems by peaceful negotiations, including the reunification of Germany and Berlin in freedom. But it is negotiation from the strength necessary to withstand the threat of Pots. And in NATO's determination to resist aggression lies the hope for peace and freedom of millions all over the world.