Evening star., 1948-07-18
Russians Believed
Pushing Berlin Crisis
To Danger Point
GEN. DONOVAN URGES World
wide Countersqueeze on Soviet.
Page Az.
BERLIN CRISIS LAID to Winant's S
Refusal to Demand Corridor. Az.
BY the Associoted Press

The Russians announced yes
terday that some of their big
transports would join Yak fight
ers on extensive training flights
across Allied air corridors
through which American and
British planes are ferrying sup
plies to Berlin.
Meanwhile high officials in Wash
ington expressed the belief that
Russia is pressing the Berlin crisis
dangerously close to war.
These officials, now rate high the
possibility of one or more deadly in
cidents in the air corridors, and
many of them feel that hotheads in
the all-powerful Russian Politburo
have gained the upper hand over
the more cautious members.
The Russian announcement of
forthcoming maneuvers said that
planes from practically every So
Wet aid field along the air corridors
would be involved. Bad weather
prevailed yesterday. however. and
little Soviet activity was noted im-
mediately.
The Russians said some of their
planes would be on blind flying
practice in the corridors to Berlin.
Two Theories Discussed.
Two theories are being discussed
by government policy makers:
Tto4 hA YNrNna11aH
into rash actions by fear that they
are losing ground in Eastern Europe
and need spectacular victory to
recover.
9. The Russians may want war.
They might have decided that they
could quickly sweep over Europe
this year before American rearma-
ment is well under way and before
Western European economic and
military strength are restored.
One highly-placed authority re-
ported that the Russians appeared
to be misjudging entirely the deter
mination of the Western powers to
stick in Berlin. He withheld the
use of his name.
Blockade Has Continued.
If this analysis is correct, it means
a complete failure to date of the
American-British-F French diploma .
tic effort to impress on the Kremlin
the firmness of their Berlin policies.
The Russian blockade of Berlin has
continued.
Since the end of World War II
State Department and military ex-
perts here have generally taken the
line that a new conf1ict-with Rus
sia-could only result from blunder-
ing by one side or the other in the
cold war" Berlin has always been
regarded as one of the danger
points: others have included Vienna
and Trieste.
One of the things which worries
State Department officials now is
that they can't figure out where any
restraining influence can originate
in the present crisis when Russia
is directly involved.
Some Actions Provocative.
Some of Russia's actions were de-
scribed as almost directly provoc-
ative. An example is the deliberate
assignment of an unusually large
number of planes to make training
fights in areas where American or
British transport craft may run in
to them.
According to one theory much
discussed by Government policy
makers, the Russians may be
pressed into rash actions by a kind
of desperate fear that they are
losing ground in Eastern Europe
and need some spectacular triumph
to recover. Much Importance is
attached here to the rebellion of
Marshal Tito against Moscow's die
tation and to the recent Communist
setback in the Finnish elections.
Such things, according to this
theory, have put the Politburo in
a mood to listen to its extremist
members and to make risky de-
cisions.
From Secretary of State Marshall
down, there is still hope that firm
ness will win out and that solution
may be found for the Berlin crisis.
That hope seems to be weaker now
than it was a week ago before the
Soviets had rejected the Western
power demands and before they
(See BERLIN. Page A-3.)