Lucius D. Clay: An American Life by Jean Edward Smith

Author:Jean Edward Smith [Smith, Jean Edward]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Published: 2014-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

25

Berlin Blockade

The future of democracy requires us to stay here until forced out. God knows this is not a heroic pose because there is nothing heroic in having to take humiliation without retaliation.

Clay to Bradley, April 10, 1948

Clay was disappointed and distressed at the collapse of the London conference of foreign ministers. He did not know why Marshall had abruptly terminated the meeting—Molotov had been at least as vituperative on occasions in the past—and he recognized that the consequences would be severe. Clay had been deeply committed to German unity. He was confident that the open competition between Western values and Communist regimentation would produce a democratic Germany; that the Germans, when given the choice in open elections, would vote overwhelmingly for liberty and freedom; and that Western democracy could be extended to the Soviet zone. Clay’s faith in democracy was genuine. He honestly believed in the competition of ideas, and he was willing to put democracy to the test. In retrospect, it is difficult to say that he was wrong. The inability of Communism to compete on even terms in Germany was initially demonstrated in 1961, when the East German regime closed their open border to the West. It was proved beyond doubt when the German Democratic Republic finally collapsed in the closing days of 1989.

But Clay was virtually alone in holding to that view in 1947. Washington had changed policy. Quadripartite government was dead. The breakup in London provided its obituary. Later Clay would cite that breakup as one of the factors that led to the Berlin blockade. Whether the United States was to blame or the French or the Russians is a moot point. A separate West German state was in the offing, and Clay sought to salvage what he could.

Bevin and Marshall quickly agreed that Clay and Robertson should press ahead with the economic and political reconstruction of the Western zones. Clay was given a green light to proceed with a long overdue currency reform. Gradually, Bizonia’s economic council would be converted into the nucleus of a West German government, Germany’s foreign trade would be increased, and the French zone incorporated into U.S. and British planning. Clay did not secretly embrace the idea of a “Russian menace” as the means of rebuilding Germany. But when given no alternative, he made the best of it.

Because of the common front being forged against the Soviet Union, Clay’s relations with the State Department appeared to improve. “Our work in London has brought us into a very close relationship with State Department personnel concerned with occupation policy,” he cabled Draper on December 20. “There appears to be little real difference in our thinking as to the future.”

But Clay’s political antennae were picking up other distressing signals at London. Both the State Department and the military appeared to be increasingly nervous about the exposed Western position in Berlin. Already the Army staff in Washington, under the direction of Lieutenant General Albert Wedemeyer, was warning of possible Soviet pressure on the city and preparing contingency plans for the evacuation of American dependents.

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