Lucius D . Clay General Lucius Dubignon Clay ( April 23 , 1897 – April 16 , 1978 ) was an American officer and military governor of the United States Army known for his administration of occupied Germany after World War II . Clay was deputy to General Dwight D . Eisenhower , 1945 ; deputy military governor , Germany ( U . S . ) 1946 ; commander in chief , U . S . Forces in Europe and military governor of the U . S . Zone , Germany , 1947 – 49 . He retired in 1949 . Clay orchestrated the Berlin Airlift ( 1948 – 1949 ) when the USSR blockaded West Berlin . Early life . Clay was born in Marietta , Georgia , the sixth and last child of Alexander Stephens Clay , who served in the U . S . Senate from 1897 to 1910 . Lucius Clay graduated from West Point in 1918 and held various civil and military engineering posts during the 1920s and 1930s , including teaching at West Point , directing the construction of dams and civilian airports , and by 1942 rising to the position of the youngest brigadier general in the Army . All the while he acquired a reputation for bringing order and operational efficiency out of chaos , and for being an exceptionally hard and disciplined worker , going long hours and refusing to even stop to eat during his workdays . World War II . Clay did not see actual combat but was awarded the Legion of Merit in 1942 , the Distinguished Service Medal in 1944 , and received the Bronze Star for his action in stabilizing the French harbor of Cherbourg , critical to the flow of war materiel . In 1945 he served as deputy to General Dwight D . Eisenhower . The following year , he was made Deputy Governor of Germany during the Allied Military Government . He would later remark regarding the occupation directive guiding his and General Eisenhower ' s actions : " there was no doubt that JCS 1067 contemplated the Carthaginian peace which dominated our operations in Germany during the early months of occupation . " OMGUS and Cold War . Clay heavily influenced United States Secretary of State James F . Byrnes ' September 1946 speech in Stuttgart , Germany . The speech ; " " Restatement of Policy on Germany " " marked the formal transition in American occupation policy away from the Morgenthau Plan of economic dismantlement to one of economic reconstruction . Clay was promoted to lieutenant general on 17 April 1945 and to general on 17 March 1947 . On March 15 , 1947 , Clay succeeded Eisenhower as military governor of occupied Germany — the head of the OMGUS , the " Office of Military Government , United States " . Clay ' s responsibilities covered a wide spectrum of social issues related to Germany ' s recovery from the war in addition to strictly military issues . He commissioned Lewis H . Brown to research and write " A Report on Germany , " which served as a detailed recommendation for the reconstruction of post - war Germany , and served as a basis for the Marshall Plan . Clay promoted democratic federalism in Germany and resisted US politicians who sought to undo a conservative constitution adopted in Bavaria . He also closed the borders of the American Zone in 1947 to stem the tide of Jewish refugees who were generating tension with the local populations . Treatment of Nazis during governorship . Clay was responsible for commuting the death sentences , among many others , for convicted Nazi war criminals Erwin Metz and his superior , Hauptmann Ludwig Merz , to only five years imprisonment ( time served ) . Metz and Merz were commanders of the infamous Bergba , Thuringia slave labor camp in which 350 U . S . soldiers were beaten , tortured , starved , and forced to work for the German government during World War II . The soldiers were singled out for looking or sounding Jewish . At least 70 U . S . soldiers died in the camp or on a later forced death march . At the time West Germany was considered strategically vital in the Cold War developing between the West and Eastern Bloc . Releasing the offenders early had the intended effect of boosting German public opinion towards the United States . He also reduced the sentence of Ilse Koch , " the Beast of Buchenwald " , who had been convicted of murder at Nuremberg and who had infamously been accused of having gloves and lampshades made from prisoners ' skin . The reductions in sentences were based on the hasty convictions of some Buchenwald personnel following the end of the war ; evidence was sometimes questionable and many witnesses claimed to have been beaten by Allied interrogators . Clay confirmed several death sentences as valid , commuted several and had some , including Ilse Koch , released after serving a reduced sentence due to questionable evidence . Under the pressure of public opinion Koch was re - arrested in 1949 and tried before a West German court and on 15 January 1951 was sentenced to life imprisonment . Berlin airlift . On June 26 , 1948 , two days after the Soviet s imposed the Berlin Blockade , Clay gave the order for the Berlin Airlift ( only afterwards receiving authorization from President Truman ) . This was an act of defiance against the Soviets , an incredible feat of logistics ( at one point cargo planes landed at Tempelhof every four minutes , twenty four hours a day ) , a defining moment of the Cold War , and a demonstration of American support for the citizens of Berlin . Clay is remembered for ordering and maintaining the airlift , which would ultimately last 324 days , ending on September 30 , 1949 . He resigned his post days after the May 12 , 1949 lifting of the blockade . On May 15 , 1949 , Clay left Germany and was replaced by John McCloy as civilian high commissioner for Germany . In the same year he was elected as an honorary member of the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati . In 1950 he became chairman of the Continental Can Company for 12 consecutive years . He retired from Continental Can in 1962 to become a Senior Partner in Lehman Brothers investment banking house until his retirement in 1973 . Cultural cold war . During this time he hired American intellectual and former U . S . Army combat historian Melvin J . Lasky . Lasky and Clay developed the concept of a " cultural cold war " , though which the USSR would be combated on a psychological and intellectual level . Clay was instrumental in creating , funding , and promoting " Der Monat " , a journal intended to support US foreign policy and win over German intellectuals . Copies of " Der Monat " were delivered along with supplies during the airlift . Clay also studied television propaganda and suggested that in Europe " you get this constant repeated propaganda without advertising and without break " , but in the United States " the advertising gives you a direct feeling of assurance that you haven ' t got propaganda in the program being thrown at you . " Crusade for Freedom . After OMGUS ended , Clay served the United States in other capacities . One of his first duties as President Dwight D . Eisenhower ' s emissary , and as the national chairman of the Crusade for Freedom , was to dedicate the city of Berlin ' s Liberty Bell . In 1954 , he was called upon by President Eisenhower , to help forge a plan for financing the proposed Interstate highway system . He had previous experience in 1933 with managing and organizing projects under the New Deal , and later became one of Eisenhower ' s closest advisers . During the Berlin Wall crisis in 1961 , President John F . Kennedy asked him to be an adviser and to go to Berlin and report on the situation . Two years later Clay accompanied Kennedy on his trip to Berlin . During his famous Ich bin ein Berliner - speech Kennedy said : " I am proud ( . . . ) to come here in the company of my fellow American , General Clay , who has been in this city during its great moments of crisis and will come again if ever needed . " Foundations , Corporations , Committees 1950 - 1978 . The George C . Marshall Foundation which oversees Clay ' s correspondences with corporations , foundations and committees assembled an alphabetical list that gives a very good overview of his broad range of activities in those fields . General Clay served all of the following institutions in some capacity - as an associate , board member , or in a similar position . Honors and decorations . Clay was given a ticker - tape parade , among many other honors , upon his return to the United States on May 19 , 1949 . He appeared on the cover of " Time magazine " magazine three times . Clay also received an honorary doctorate of the Freie Universität Berlin and became an honorary citizen of Berlin ( West ) in 1953 . One of the longest streets in West Berlin was named " Clayallee " in his honor , as was the Clay Headquarters Compound , which was located on the street . It held the headquarters of the Berlin Brigade , U . S . Army Berlin ( USAB ) , and the U . S . Mission in Berlin . Marietta , Georgia named one of its major streets " Clay Road " , and South Cobb High School ' s football stadium is named " Clay Stadium " in honor of his work in creating what is now Dobbins Air Force Base there . While now called South Marietta Parkway ( State Route 120 Loop ) , it still carries memorial signs at each end dedicating the highway to him . In 1978 a new U . S . Army base in Northern Germany near the city of Bremen was named for Clay and until the end of the Cold War housed a forward - stationed brigade of the 2nd Armored Division , the 3rd Brigade , 2nd Armored Division , which had been based at Fort Hood , TX with the rest of the 2AD . This unit was redesignated as the 2nd Armored Division ( Forward ) . 2AD ( FWD ) saw action in the Gulf War of 1991 before being disbanded as part of the post - Cold War drawdown of the U . S . Army . Since October 1 , 1993 these barracks are used by the Bundeswehr but are still named after Clay . The " General - Clay - March " by Heinz Mertins , was written in his honor . Wiesbaden Army Airfield , near Frankfurt , Germany , was renamed " Lucius D . Clay Kaserne " in honor of GEN Clay on 14 June 2012 . Wiesbaden Army Airfield was used extensively in " Operation Vittles , " aka the Berlin Airlift . The name " Lucius Clay " features in the song " The Legend of Wooley Swamp " by the Charlie Daniels Band . Clay had just died around the time the song was written . Clay lies buried in West Point Cemetery . At his grave site is a stone plate from the citizens of Berlin that says : " Wir danken dem Bewahrer unserer Freiheit " ( We thank the Preserver of our Freedom ) . General Clay´s decorations include : Distinguished Service Medal with Two Oak Leaf Cluster s , Legion of Merit , Bronze Star Medal , World War I Victory Medal , Army of Occupation of Germany Medal , American Defense Service Medal , American Campaign Medal , European - African - Middle Eastern Campaign Medal , World War II Victory Medal , Army of Occupation Medal , Order of Kutuzov , Order of the British Empire , Military Order of the White Lion , Officer of the Military William Order , Commander of the Legion of Honour and Bundesverdienstkreuz ( Grand Cross ) . Family . Clay was the father of two sons , both of whom became Generals . Clay ' s son , General Lucius D . Clay , Jr . , held the positions of commander - in - chief of the North American Air Defense Command , the Continental Air Defense Command , and the United States element of NORAD , and was also a commander of the U . S . Air Force Aerospace Defense Command . Clay ' s other son , Major General Frank Butner Clay , served in conflicts from World War II through the Vietnam War , and was an adviser to the US delegation at the Paris peace talks which ended US involvement in the Vietnam War .