Park Avenue Diplomacy--Ending the Berlin Blockade
The city of Berlin lies 11o miles within the Sovietdominated area of the German Democratic Republic. Cut off from the rest of the city by the notorious wall, West Berlin is virtually an island. The Soviet Union has tried repeatedly to make the position of the Western powers in Berlin untenable. The four-power talks on an assured future position for Berlin which began in March 1970 finally ended in agreement but details, left to be settled by the East Germans with Chancellor Willy Brandt's government, at this writing still await final adjustment. Looking back, one recalls that 1961 was a year of high tension as the Soviets harassed access to Berlin. So was 1959. Before that, in 1948, the most famous of the Berlin blockades was established by the Russians. The West countered with the airlift and took the case to the United Nations Security Council. As expected, the Soviet representative, Vishinsky, vetoed a resolution proposed by the six "neutral" members of the Council and the Western powers cooperated with a United Nations committee of economic experts who sought a formula to solve the question which Moscow claimed was the reason for their blockade,