This book is the masterfully told story of the unlikely men who came together to make the Berlin Airlift one of the great military and humanitarian successes of American history. Author Cherny brings together newly unclassified documents, unpublished letters and diaries, and fresh primary interviews to tell the story of the ill-assorted group of castoffs and second-stringers who not only saved millions of desperate people from a dire threat but changed how the world viewed the United States. On June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union cut off all access to West Berlin, prepared to starve the city into submission. Most of America's top officials considered the situation hopeless. But not all of them. President Harry Truman, frustrated general Lucius Clay, logistics expert Bill Tunner, and secretary of defense James Forrestal improvised and stumbled their way into an unprecedented, uniquely American combination of military and moral force. - Publisher.