1. West Berlin stayed free. The objective of the Soviets was to seize West Berlin, they lost.
2. The airlift demonstrated to the very recently vanquished Berliners that the West would stand by them and not let them fall to the Communists.
3. The airlift demonstrated to the Soviets that their bid for greater hegemony over Europe would be stopped.
People that claim to be historians should study history and apply logic, not make up fantasies - if the West hadn't carried out the airlift and its simultaneously conducted military movements and diplomatic response, Berlin would have fallen, whether the black marketeers were resourceful or not: the Soviets had T-34 tanks - the Berliners didn't.
Villanova's standards seem to have slipped.
Very well put, and thank you!
You left out another key benefit of the airlift - it fundamentally changed the relationship between the Allies and the former German military and destroyed the anti-fraternization standards.
The US and other allies had to recruit former Luftwaffe personnel to provide ground service for the aircraft. Although the German mechanics and the Americans were supposed to communicate only to the limited amount needed to actually get the job done, as a practical matter, legal barriers as well as social barriers were overcome.
And how does that contradict his thesis?