President Clinton yesterday praised the American airmen who broke the Soviet blockade of Berlin with the world's biggest airlift 50 years ago.
In a loud and colourful ceremony Mr Clinton shook hands with the "Candy Bomber" pilots who dropped gum and chocolate to the children of the besieged city as they ferried in everything from powdered milk to the parts for an entire power station.
Mr Clinton, accompanied by the German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, recalled that in 1948 Stalin cut off land routes to the Allied western sectors of Berlin, and the "spectre of communism" covered half of Europe.
"The edge of that shadow was the runway here at Tempelhof Airport. The last European battlefield of World War Two became the first battlefield of the Cold War," Mr Clinton told a crowd of about 7,000.
In bright sunshine Mr Clinton inspected one of the old C54 "Spirit of Freedom" aircraft which brought in the tons of "care packages" that kept west Berlin's war-weary two million inhabitants alive.
"I salute the people of Berlin," Mr Clinton said. "The most precious cargo did not come in the well-named care packages. It was instead the hope created by the constant roar of the planes overhead . . . reminding you that Berlin was not alone and that freedom was no flight of imagination."
Dr Kohl also paid tribute to the US and British airmen who made nearly 277,000 flights which cost the lives of 31 US and 39 British airmen. A total of 78 people were killed. "The airlift came to symbolise the unshakeable strength of western democracy and the whole world will not forget this - the steadfast determination of the western allies not to yield an inch in the face of the communist threat." "The Berlin population . . . learned what it meant not to be alone in the hour of need," Dr Kohl added. "This city owes its survival and freedom during the Cold War to the firm resolve of the United States and our other western allies."
As a German army band played Glenn Miller hits Mr Clinton met some of the pilots who threw sweet packages with handkerchief parachutes from their aircraft, and some of the children who caught them.
The United States and Britain began the airlift to west Berlin in June 1948. At its peak, on April 16th, 1949, planes were taking off and landing every 30 seconds. The Soviet Union ultimately realised that the blockade had failed and reopened land routes on May 12th, 1949. On September 30th the airlift was officially ended.
"Berlin bleibt doch Berlin (Berlin is still Berlin)," Mr Clinton concluded to applause.
He then left the city to become the first US president to visit one of the former communist east German states outside the greater Berlin area. Mr Clinton toured a car plant belonging to GM subsidiary Opel at Eisenach, a town between Berlin and Frankfurt. The US is the biggest foreign investor in east Germany which has 20 per cent unemployment.