Have you ever considered the role food plays in war?

Angered at taxes levied by the British without their consent, patriots in protest tossed hundreds of tea chests into the sea during the Boston Tea Party in 1773. It would be one of the most galvanizing events in the lead up to the American Revolution. Spices, sugar, molasses and wheat, among other crops, once dominated world trade and vying for control of trade lanes, along with the establishment of colonial empires to control the means of production, were enterprises rife with conflict.

Napoleon once said an army marches on its stomach, underscoring the vital role supply lines play in a military advance. Whether he said this before or after his infamous retreat from Moscow—when more than half of his 680,000 men lost their lives due to a lack of food and fuel during one particularly bitter winter—isn’t clear. A turning point in the Napoleonic Wars, the retreat damaged Napoleon’s reputation as a great general and France’s position as Europe’s foremost military power.

And as a steady supply of food has been a luxury afforded only to the wealthy for much of human history, anyone or any government that controlled supply wielded an incredible amount of power over the masses. Let’s consider how that power has been abused.

Joesph Stalin, in an attempt to push the Western Allies out of Berlin in the late 1940s, called for a blockade of all supply caravans coming into the city from the west. Berlin was still recovering from the war, its people were hungry and rampant inflation meant money carried little value. Depriving the city of western goods meant the situation would only worsen—Berliners had food to last just 36 days!

Using propaganda and Communist support on the ground, Stalin worked to frame the U.S., Britain and France as the bad guys refusing to deliver vital supplies and, with the memory of defeat still fresh, Germans weren’t yet ready to trust such recent enemies. If the Western Allies were forced to retreat, it would have been a victory for Communism. If they used force to break the blockade, it would have been grounds for another world war. Stalin wanted to remove democracy’s Eastern European outpost without armed conflict and—by his willingness to starve a people—thought he was well positioned to do so.

But the Western Allies had another plan. Planes flew supplies into Berlin for as long as the blockade lasted. 1,534 tons of food were needed each day to keep the city’s two million people alive. This included 646 tons of flour and wheat; 125 tons of cereal; 64 tons of fat; 109 tons of meat and fish; 180 tons of dehydrated potatoes; 180 tons of sugar; 11 tons of coffee; 19 tons of powdered milk; 5 tons of whole milk; 3 tons of fresh yeast for baking; 144 tons of dehydrated vegetables; 38 tons of salt; and 10 tons of cheese. Coal, which was needed in the greatest quantity, was vital to supplying heat and electricity. The Western Allies needed to make 1,000 flights a day to meet these quotas, an enormous undertaking.

The logistics of the operation were remarkable with planes landing and taking off every three minutes. Berliners were hired to unload and service the planes while on the ground and pilots worked round the clock to deliver all that the city needed by air. The blockade lasted from June of 1948 to May of 1949, during which time 2.3 million tons of supplies were delivered.

The East had denied a people food and the West had refused to let them go without. Stalin’s attempts to control the people of Berlin and Communism’s rise in Eastern Europe through control of the food supply had backfired.

Further casting the West and East in the roles of good and evil, was an operation within the broader airdrop to deliver chocolate, candies and chewing gum to the children of Berlin.

During one routine drop, U.S. pilot Gail Halvorsen noticed children gathered at the airfield to watch the planes arrive. He wandered over and offered them a few sticks of chewing gum, which they then shared among each other, grateful for the token and asking for nothing more.

The blockade had left them with little to smile about and Halvorsen wanted to change that. With each subsequent trip, he dropped small parachutes loaded with sweets to the children below. He would wiggle his wings to let them know his plane was arriving.

Soon, Halvorsen’s unauthorized drops caught the eyes of his superiors who believed in the value of the operation and sought to broaden its scope and galvanize public support back home. The chocolates and candies, initially pulled from pilots’ rations, were soon provided by American school children and major corporations. The Candy Bomber, as Halvorsen would go on to be named, had kicked off a campaign of chocolate diplomacy, further winning the hearts and minds of Germans. The Berlin Airlift is just one example of the role food has played in war. In using food for good, the Western powers demonstrated their commitment to building a post-war Germany, the foundations of which had a far-reaching impact.

So as you try these delicious chocolate chunk cookies, adapted from Joy the Baker, have a think about the Candy Bomber and power of food beyond taste.

Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Makes 10-12 cookies

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup dark chocolate, chopped into chunks

Preheat oven to 300°F and prepare two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer or with a hand beater, beat the butter and sugars together until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add egg and beat for an additional minute. Add vanilla and beat until just incorporated. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Then pour dry ingredients into the butter mixture and beat on low speed until just incorporated.  Then mix in the chocolate chunks. 

Dollop or scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches of room between each cookie. Each cooking should be about two tablespoons. Bake for 18-24 minutes or until just golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.