On June 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy stood before a large crowd in West Berlin and delivered one of the most famous speeches of the Cold War. The city of Berlin had become a powerful symbol of the conflict between democracy and communism. After World War II, Berlin was divided into zones controlled by the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union.

On June 24, 1948, Soviet forces blocked road, rail, and water access to West Berlin, cutting off the city from supplies coming from the western zones of Germany. West Berlin was located deep inside Soviet-controlled territory, but it was still occupied by the United States, Great Britain, and France after World War II. The blockade created one of the first major crises of the Cold War because nearly two million people in West Berlin depended on outside supplies for food, fuel, medicine, and basic survival.