I am a child of the Cold War – that nuclear standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union that dominated world politics from the late '40s until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Many of us forget – or are too young to remember – the intensity of the Cold War, particularly in its earliest days.

It was a scary time. The Soviet Union, taking advantage of the weakness of the Allies, had moved quickly to install Communist governments all across Eastern Europe. For the last years of the '40s, there seemed to be one winning formula in Europe, and it was bright Red.

Then came the Berlin Airlift – just 60 years ago – to turn the tide.

Back then the city of Berlin, deep in the Soviet sector of a divided Germany, was itself divided into three Western (U.S., Britain, and France) sectors and an Eastern (Soviet) sector.

The city had been devastated in the final days of the war, and the Western sectors only survived with regular relief supplies from the West along road corridors that the Soviet Union closed in June 1948. This was part of an aggressive Soviet strategy to take control of all of Berlin and consolidate its hold on East Germany.

The Western Allies responded by airlifting supplies into Berlin through air corridors that remained protected by treaty. At the time nothing of the kind had been attempted before.

AGAINST ALL EXPECTATIONS

The Soviets never believed the Allies could sustain such an operation. The Allies had available only 100 C-47 aircraft, also known as the commercial DC-3. It was a fine and durable plane, but limited in capacity. Gen. Lucius Clay, the U.S. military governor in Germany, put in an emergency request for the C-54 Skymaster, a new plane with four times the cargo capacity of the C-47.

The first Skymasters arrived at Rhein-Main Air Base in late June, were immediately loaded and sent on to Berlin.

In a matter of a few weeks, the then-fledgling U.S. Air Force had mustered 300 Skymasters to go along with the 100 C-47s. A few months later, Gen. William Turner, a veteran of "over the hump" flying (India to China via Burma), took command of the air operation. Turner brought a series of measures to improve effectiveness and safety.

At the height of the operation, planes were landing at Berlin's Tempelhof airport every three minutes around the clock. Turner's procedure mandated one landing attempt only. If the pilot missed, the plane had to go back. When the plane landed, the crew stayed aboard while the plane was unloaded to get it off the ground faster and make room for another plane.

Much of the cargo was the coal needed for fuel and heating, but staple foods and medical supplies were also a big part of the airlift.

One of the regular American pilots, 1st Lt. Gail Halvorsen, noticed the crowds of hungry children who stood outside the fence at Tempelhof watching the planes.

Halvorsen and his crew took to bringing some candy along on each of their flights and dropping it with handkerchief parachutes just before they landed.

THE CANDY BOMBER

To alert the children, he "waggled" his wings as he approached. He was soon dubbed the "Candy Bomber" by the German press. Before long, the story had spread to the United States and packages of candy, gum, and handkerchiefs began arriving from all over.

By the time the Soviets relented and reopened the road access to Berlin 10 months later, the Berlin Airlift had brought 2.3 million tons of cargo and 277,685 flights – still the largest humanitarian airlift on record.

The airlift saved West Berlin and, more significantly, defined the high-water mark for Soviet penetration in Europe.

Austria, also partially occupied by Soviet troops, began to move decisively toward the West. The Marshall Plan, the massive project to aid in the reconstruction of Western Europe, began to have an impact.

All of Western Europe began to breathe easier, thanks to Halvorsen and his fellow airmen.

The Cold War was not over – not by a long shot. Nonetheless, to paraphrase a comment made early in World War II by that ultimate cold warrior, Winston Churchill, "It was not the beginning of the end, but it was certainly the end of the beginning."

To read more about the airlift, try Andrei Cherny's "The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour."