The Berlin Crisis

      Refugee Problems: The East German Govt. was very unpopular and therefore many fled to the west. The West was highly attractive as people had greater freedom and wealth. Between 1949 and 1961, 2.7 million East German refugees (many highly skilled) escaped to West. Berlin was the centre of East Germany’s refugee problem, as it was easy to get from East to West Berlin, and then to West Germany.

      Khrushchev’s Challenge: Refugee problem was propaganda disaster for Khrushchev. It proved that more people preferred the Capitalist West to the Communist East. Therefore in Nov 1958, Khrushchev declared that whole of city of Berlin officially belonged to East Germany and gave American troops six months to withdraw. He planned to prevent the fleeing of East Germans and to humiliate America.

      Eisenhower’s Response: After Khrushchev demanded America leave West Berlin, Americans were uncertain on how to respond to this. Eisenhower did not want to lose West Berlin, but he also did not want to start a war. So they decided to hold an international meeting in order to discuss Berlin’s future.

      Four Summits (May 1959): Talks were held in a summit meeting in Geneva between foreign representatives from the USA and USSR. No solution to the problem was agreed. It laid the ground for Khrushchev to visit USA for face-to-face talks with Eisenhower. In Sep 1959 Khrushchev and Eisenhower met a second summit in Camp David. Once again no agreement was brought about however they decided to hold another meeting the following year. Additionally, Khrushchev withdrew his six month ultimatum. The next meeting took place in Paris, May 1960, but was a disaster. Just before, the USSR shot down an American Spy Plane over Russia and captured the pilot. Khrushchev refused to apologise for it. When JFK became president, a further summit was arranged. At Vienna, June 1961, neither side seemed to back down. Khrushchev saw Kennedy’s inexperience as a weakness to be exploited. Khrushchev once again introduced the six month ultimatum assuming Kennedy would back down.

      JFK prepares for War: Despite Khrushchev’s ultimatum, JFK refused to back down. He declared that American troops would not leave Berlin. He began to prepare America for war. He increased defence spending by $3.2bn. He spent an extra $207 million on building nuclear fallout shelter. A point of stalemate had been reached.  

      Building the Wall: Khrushchev knew that USSR could not win a nuclear war. In 1961, America had almost 20 times the nuclear weapons that USSR had. American nuclear weapons were able to reach USSR, but not the other way around. Kennedy’s refusal to retreat forced Khrushchev to back down. The soviet leader was not able to force the US out but he still had to solve the refugee problem. He built a wall, separating East and West Berlin making it impossible for East Germans to escape to the west. On night of 12^th August 1961, East German troops secretly erected a barbed wire fence around the whole of West Berlin. Next morning, Berliners awoke to a divided city. In coming months the fence was reinforced and eventually became a heavily guarded wall. Kennedy stated, “It is not a very nice solution, but a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war.”