Word: sovietizers
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Force officer walked into Berlin's four-power Air Safety Center one day last fortnight, filed a flight plan for an incoming C-130 Lockheed Hercules turboprop transport plane. Altitude for the flight through the Berlin air corridor to the Communist-surrounded city: 25,000 ft. Instantly, the Soviet representative at A.S.C. protested; ever since the four powers occupied Berlin, the Russians have arbitrarily set an altitude ceiling for non-Russian planes at 10,000 ft., reserved the airspace above for themselves. The U.S. officer shrugged casually at the protest. The Russian reached for his phone...
Moments later, the Hercules took off from Evreux, France. When it flew across the West German border into the southern corridor at 25,000 ft., three Soviet jet fighters closed in, wheeled to within 10 ft. of the transport's wingtips, buzzed annoyingly until it entered the landing pattern of Berlin's Tempelhof airport. On the return trip, also at 25,000 ft., it was harassed by Russian fighters all the way through the corridor to the western borders of Communist-held East Germany...
...Support. The high-flying trip was no flight of pilot's fancy. Last month Air Force headquarters in Europe proposed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the U.S. challenge Soviet claims to the right to limit flight altitudes in the corridors. The Chiefs weighed the idea, agreed that the U.S. ought to establish its right to fly the corridors at any altitude it deems necessary; in the event of another Berlin blockade, the Air Force will certainly use the huge C-130s for long-distance hauls, which would require higher altitudes than the short prop hauls made...
Nonetheless, the U.S. had clearly challenged one arbitrary Soviet restriction on access to Berlin, had just as clearly won its point...
This crumbling of the Old Order of statesmen may be the best thing that has happened to Western-Soviet relations in a long time. Certainly the ideals of a Dulles or an Adenauer should not and, hopefully, will not be sacrificed in an Era of Compromise-if such is forthcoming. If there are Western leaders who can parry and thrust with the best of the Communists then now is certainly the time for them to appear...