Seventy Years Ago Today The Soviets Blockaded West Berlin and Began Their Attempt to Starve the City Into Submission

At the time it wasn't known as West Berlin but rather the French, British and American Zones of Occupation. But the Sov's did cut it off from from what, less than a year later, May of 1949, was to become West Germany

As with many crises, this one began with a disagreement over money, specifically the surprise currency exchange by the Western powers of the new Deutsche Mark to replace the seriously debased (by the Russians overprinting) Reichsmark.

Our last mention of the currency swap was in 2016's "Whoa: India Messes With Currency Big-Time":

Although not as dramatic* as the 1948 German currency reform when 10 Reichsmarks were swapped for 1 Deutsche Mark in the Western zones of occupation, this is still a stunning move....

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...*Four days later the Soviets blockaded the city of Berlin to starve and/or freeze the population into submission which led to one of my favorite examples of clear thinking...

We'll have more on Tuesday, another anniversary of the events of '48 - '49.