2. I think the USA didn't believe these were genuine reasons because the Soviets were just doing it to get ahead and Truman probably anticipated this kind of act from Stalin.
3. Source 33 and 35 differ in interpretations of the blockade because source 33 expresses the point that both sides' work was pointless. The USSR didn't gain control of Berlin, and the West side isn't guaranteed that this won't happen again. The blockade just made everything more tense. In source 35, President Truman talks about how he thinks that the Berlin air-lift was an act of not backing down and how they stuck to their word about helping and that they were protecting their freedom in Berlin. He thinks it brought them closer to the west, while source 33 says nothing changed.
4. I think the most useful source would be to take the Soviet's view and President Truman's view and contrast them because they both say opposite things. For a historian, that'd be the best choice because both comments are from the two sides. Truman's is a primary source too.
5. I think the most reliable source would be the other historian's work (Source 33) because as far as we know, it's not someone who was taking sides in the matter. President Truman obviously wants to make it sound like what they were doing in Europe was helping, and the Soviet view is the complete opposite of Truman's.
