As a current citizen of Berlin, I was aware of the large-scale relief effort the U.S. mounted after the Soviet Union had blocked all land supply routes into West Berlin in June 1948, in what became known to the world as the Berlin Airlift. In this context, I had also heard the story of American pilots dropping candy from their C-54s when flying into Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin. I could not, however, have spoken with certainty about the origin or the scope of the candy dropping operation, even though by now whole books have been written on the subject.