Berlin: Threat to a Lifeline

One word keeps Berlin alive: access. Without the 13 channels through which planes, trains, autos and barges move through East German territory, West Berlin could not survive. Any threat to that access, however small, is a threat to Berlin's life. Last week, after three years in which its lifeline went largely unchallenged, West Berlin was once more threatened by an attempt to limit its contact with the West. East Germany announced that it would not allow members of West Germany's rightist National Democratic Party, or other "neo-Nazis," to travel through East Germany to Berlin.

The threat seemed limited, consider ing...

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