They have challenged cold war assertions of a hermetic soviet seal around west berlin whose inhabitants survived the 1948 1949 blockade only on the basis of food and fuel supplied by an anglo american airlift daniel f harrington does not seek to recapture a heroic version of the airlift he celebrates it more subtly arguing that the unexpected successes of a policy that most western . Inberlin on the brink the blockade the airlift and the cold war daniel f harrington examines the berlin question from its origin in wartime plans for the occupation of germany through the paris council of foreign ministers meeting in 1949 harrington draws on previously untapped archival sources to challenge standard accounts of the postwar division of germany the origins of the . Tracing the blockades origins it explains why british and american planners during the second world war neglected western access to postwar berlin and why western officials did little to reduce berlins vulnerability as cold war tensions increased standard accounts mistakenly emphasize an early decision to rely on an airlift to defeat . In berlin on the brink the blockade the airlift and the cold war daniel f harrington examines the berlin question from its origin in wartime plans for the occupation of germany through the. Stalin hoped that the blockade would stop the formation of a west german state and if not he would take berlin it was one of the few cards stalin had to play western policymakers were faced with this decision either abandon berlin or send an armed convoy down the autobahn to west berlin and risk a broader war the failure of the