Le blocus de Berlin et la guerre froide

[fre] Abstract The Berlin blockade was undoubtedly the beginning of the cold war ; it also was a turning point for the relations of France both with her allies and with Germany. The article relates first the disagreements — sometimes acute — between France on one hand, the U.K. and the U.S.A. on the other, about the treatment of defeated Germany ; then the increasingly serious dispute between the Western powers and the U.S.S.R., which resulted in the blockade of Berlin by Soviet forces. The Americans and the British reacted with vigour — specially thanks to Ernest Bevin — and improvised the airlift, which prevented the Russians from taking over the ex-capital of Germany. France did not take part in the airlift, for lack of aircraft and because of her government's timidity, but there was collaboration on the spot between French and Allied forces. Eventually, the Berlin blockade led France to give up plans for a super- Versailles and to adopt a policy of reconciliation with Germany.