Which US president ordered the Berlin Airlift?

Harry S. Truman ordered the American response that became the Berlin Airlift. When the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin in June 1948, Truman approved supplying the city by air rather than risking a ground confrontation.

The blockade cut West Berlin off from most road, rail, and canal access through the Soviet occupation zone. The United States and Britain responded with continuous flights carrying food, coal, medicine, and other essentials. The American operation was called Operation Vittles; the British called theirs Operation Plainfare.

General Lucius D. Clay, the American military governor in Germany, gave the immediate operational order on June 25, 1948. Truman's role was the crucial presidential authorization and political decision to sustain the airlift, expand its aircraft fleet, and resist Soviet pressure without starting a war.

The airlift lasted about fifteen months. More than 275,000 flights delivered roughly 2.3 million tons of supplies before the Soviet Union lifted the blockade on May 12, 1949. The episode became an early defining confrontation of the Cold War.