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What were the Russians after? Facing an increasingly hostile German population, their position was not much more enviable than the West's. They were simply beating against the West's weakest salient to win either its surrender—or the even bigger prize of a new conference, with Ruhr coal on the table. What could the U.S. do about it? Washington's diplomatic counterattack—which must strive not merely for present Russian withdrawal but for guarantees against future assaults—could start with a formal protest to Moscow (which was being readied this week). The next possible steps: U.N. discussion; economic sanctions, including the closing of the Suez and Panama canals to Soviet ships; a diplomatic break. Only after the failure of such steps was the U.S. likely to arm food trains which might or might not have to shoot their way through the Russian zone.
"The World So Fair." Over soggy Berlin, the roar of the planes continued. The City Assembly heard it when, led by tough little Mayoress Louise Schroeder, it defied the Russians and sent an appeal for intervention to the U.N. Communist Boss Wilhelm Pieck heard it when he told party leaders that they must fight the "infection" of diversionist elements. "In the last three weeks," cried Pieck, "you have lost all the popularity you have gained in the last three years." And the children heard the sound, and feared it, for it stirred memories of bombings not so long ago—children like twelve-year-old Max, who each night recited an English prayer he had learned in his German school:
Father, we thank Thee for the night
And for the pleasant morning light,
For rest and food and loving care,
And all that makes the world so fair . . .
"The courage of the people of Berlin," said Lucius Clay, "is a source of great hope." To Berlin and the U.S., General Clay himself was a source of great hope. Said a U.S. observer in Berlin last week: "Two of the most important reasons why the West is still in Berlin and not at war with Russia are that Clay has forged a policy of firmness almost wholly on his own initiative, and that in so doing he has avoided making any fateful blunders into silly belligerence."
General Clay (his wife reported) "was happy as a kid" when he got reports from Washington last week that more C-54s were on their way to Berlin from Alaska and the Caribbean.
Overhead, the roar of the planes continued day & night.
*Estimated time of arrival. *Wartime chief of the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division, whose present "quartermaster" job is something of a return of his beginnings: no West Pointer, Huebner started his Army career as a cook.