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of starving the people of the Western sectors,” the Times reported. “Although they see dark days ahead, the Berliners remained calm.” Within days, the Americans and British, along with otherWorldWar II allies, began a massive airlift to resupply the city. The airlift lasted for nearly a year. On May 12, 1949, the Soviets finally lifted the blockade, allowing food and other goods to flow freely into the city. The blockade and the Berlin Airlift were watershed events that helped lead to the

creation of two German states—East and West Germany. For the next four decades, theWestern democracies, led by theUnited States, asserted their liberally minded dominance and capitalist market system over Western Europe, while the Soviets pushed communism in the East. This battle soon raged in other areas, including Africa and Latin America. The result was striking. Countries that subscribed to the free market system of the West fared much better than state-controlled systems. The different economic philosophies had ramifications for the alleviation of poverty and for social development.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS Traute Grier, Who Lived through the Berlin Airlift

At home we carefully had to plan when we would cook, as we only had electricity at certain times. As a result, it was not unusual that my mother would get up in the middle of the night at 2 a.m. and start boiling some potatoes. To keep them warm she would then wrap the saucepan in newspaper and cover it with a blanket before going back to sleep. The next day we would have potatoes, the following day potatoes with soup and the day after soup with potatoes. We were thankful for what we had. — From a personal account written for the German magazine Der Spiegel.

Even though economic development was strong in Western, capitalist-leaning countries, communist economic policies advocated by the Soviets attracted many nations in the Third World, especially those that had once been colonial pos- sessions. At the time, the Soviets made a strategic decision to focus their attention on economically developing countries that had been exploited by the colonial powers. By helping to modernize and edu- cate people in these undeveloped regions, the communists hoped to deny the capitalist West vital resources, while making the nations of the Third World communist allies. Many politicians and people living in these poorer countries had long been exploited by Western colonial powers. In their worldview, communism was a way to throw off the shackles of foreign economic exploitation and create opportunities at home.

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EDUCATION, POVERTY, AND INEQUALITY