Which event involved airlifting supplies to a city surrounded by a blockade, signaling Cold War tensions?

• A. Boomtown
• B. Berlin Airlift
• C. Black Codes
• D. Bonus Army

Answer: (B)

A key idea here is how a blockade during the early Cold War prompted a massive airlift to keep a city under siege supplied, showing how logistics and international resolve can counter pressure without invasion. When the Soviet Union blocked land access to West Berlin in 1948, the Western Allies organized an enormous airlift to deliver food, coal, medicine, and other essentials. Over about a year, Allied planes flew thousands of missions, delivering roughly 2.3 million tons of cargo into West Berlin. This sustained supply lines through air corridors and demonstrated that the Allies would stand firm to protect civilians and a free city, signaling resolve in the face of Soviet pressure and shaping early Cold War diplomacy. The blockade ended in 1949, making the event a landmark example of how air power and coordinated logistics can influence geopolitical tensions. Other terms refer to entirely different historical contexts—rapid mining-town growth, post–Civil War restrictive laws, and a 1930s veterans’ protest—so they don’t fit this scenario.