The US military governor who answered the blockade of West Berlin with a 324-day airlift
On 25 June 1948, the day after the blockade began, Clay ordered the airlift on his own authority before Truman formally approved it, and the Berliners he saved came to call him their 'city father' and carved on his grave: 'Wir danken dem Bewahrer unserer Freiheit.'
An engineer who rose through the Army's Corps of Engineers to direct wartime supply, Clay became military governor of the American zone in occupied Germany in 1947. When the Soviets blockaded West Berlin in 1948, he chose an airlift over the armed convoys he privately favored, ordered it on his own authority, and held out for all 324 days, arguing that Berlin's defense was a question of American honor and Western Europe's fate. After retiring in 1949 he became a businessman and presidential adviser, and in 1961 returned to Berlin as Kennedy's envoy, sending American tanks to face Soviet armor at Checkpoint Charlie.
Career Timeline
- 1897Born in Marietta, Georgia, son of Senator Alexander Stephens Clay
- 1918Graduated West Point; commissioned in the Corps of Engineers
- 1942Became the youngest brigadier general; director of materiel under Eisenhower
- 1945–1946Deputy to Eisenhower, then deputy military governor of Germany
- 1947–1949Military governor of the US Zone and C-in-C, US Forces Europe
- 1948.06.25Ordered the Berlin Airlift
- 1949–1962Retired; chairman of Continental Can Company
- 1961–1962Kennedy's envoy to Berlin; US and Soviet tanks faced off at Checkpoint Charlie