Berlin Blockade Document Analysis

1. What type of document is this? What is its purpose?      
  Both documents are reports and memorandums from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).  The purpose of these documents is to report on the decisions being made by the Soviet Union regarding Berlin and West Germany.


2. When was it written? Why is that significant?     
 They were written on June 30, 1948 and that is significant because they are events that had just happened and were probably events that the Soviet Union did not want the rest of the war knowing about.


3. Who created the document? Who received the document?     
 They were written by R.H. Hillenkoetter in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) created the document for President Truman.


4. Who is Marshal Sokolovsky?     
 Marshal Sokolovsky is an official from the Soviet Union who met with German officials about how the Berlin Blockade would affect East Germany and how to solve this issue. He decides to let the West feed their own parts of Berlin (West Berlin).


5. How did the CIA get information of the meeting between Marshal Sokolovsky and German members of the German industrial committee?      
   The CIA had a spy or imformant at the conference who supplied them with information.
  

6. What were the three Soviet alternatives as they presented themselves when this document was written? What policy did the Soviets pursue over the course of the next nine months? Why?     

 The three alternative were to start a war with the USA, Britain, and France, stop the blockade, or just let the three western countries take care of feeding the people in West Berlin.  They felt that they were not in a good position to start a war because they did not have the supplies to do so and that if they lifted the blockade they would look weak.  Therefore, having the West feed their people was the best option and would create a challenge for those countries and Soviet wanted to create hardships for them.

7. Stalin stated in a speech on February 9, 1946, "he [Stalin] blamed the last war on 'capitalist monopolies' and warning that, since the same forces still operated, the USSR must treble the basic materials of national defense such as iron and steel, double coal and oil production, and to delay the manufacture of consumer goods until rearmament was complete." Who are the "capitalist monopolies?" How does this statement enlighten the Soviet viewpoint against the United States? Were the Allies justified in canceling the shipments of German reparations to the Soviets at the end of World War II? Why did the Soviets rely so heavily on Germany for food and industry?        
  The capitalist monopolies are American and British companies.  This statement enlightens the Soviet viewpoint against the US.  That is because Stalin is saying that companies of the US and Britain are responsible for starving people and the lack of goods for the people in the country.  This would make the Soviets seem like the victims and the US seem like an attacker out to kill innocent people.  Also, although it does not seem fair, the Allies were justified in stopping the Soviets from taking such a large amount of money from Germany.  Even though the Soviet Union lost many men in the war, punishing Germany too harshly would risk another war and, with the discovery of the atomic bomb, they might actually have been able to take over the world in World War III.  The lack of money was especially unfortunate for the Soviet Union because they desperately relied on Germany for food and industry because the rest of the Soviet Union, mainly Russia, was in a drought.  This meant that the rest of the Soviet Union could not grow food, so they needed German food.