Opinion on the Berlin Blockade?

  Berlin, for instance. I had come from New York where the papers daily shrieked about the terrible Russian “blockade,” that was trying to starve Berlin for “political gain.” I found that people here don’t consider that there’s any “blockade” at all, but merely a currency and trade control to prevent American black-marketeers from ruining the entire Soviet zone. They assure me that at all times the Russians have had enough food in their sector of Berlin to feed the entire city, and can bring more in from Poland if needed, but that the Western military authorities terrorize with loss of food cards and even by physical beatings any Germans who try to go to the Soviet zone to buy. They give you examples.
  The view here is that the Americans don’t want any solution in Berlin except one that will enable them to use their foothold in that city to ruin the economy of the entire Soviet zone; that the “air-lift” is chiefly propaganda and military furor, plus export of a lot of Berlin industrial property without control. That every time an agreement is reached, the Americans break it by trying to make it mean more than it says. For instance, by translating “four power control” of Berlin currency into the right of Americans to print Soviet zone marks

archive.org