At Checkpoint Charlie, US and Soviet Tanks Faced Each Other at Point-Blank Range
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At Checkpoint Charlie, US and Soviet tanks faced each other at point-blank range. AP Ppoto/Kreusch 92 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2011 Showdown in BerlinBy John T. Correll any place was ground zero for the The First Crisis from the 1948 confrontation—Walter Cold War, it was Berlin. The first Berlin crisis was in 1948, Ulbricht, the Communist Party boss in Awash in intrigue, the former when the Soviets and East Germans East Germany. capital of the Third Reich lay 110 attempted to cut the city off from the Ulbricht, handpicked for the job by miles inside the Iron Curtain but outside world. However, three air the Soviet Premier, Joseph Stalin, was was not part of East Germany. corridors into Berlin, each 20 miles charmless, intense, and dogmatic, but IEach of the four victorious powers in wide, remained open. The Americans a good administrator and a reliable en- Europe in World War II—the United and British responded with the Berlin forcer of Soviet hegemony. Stalin had States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Airlift, which sustained West Berlin visions of a unified Germany as part Union—held control of a sector of the with food, fuel, and other supplies from of the Soviet sphere of influence, but city, which would be preserved as the June 1948 to September 1949. Ulbricht had so antagonized the popu- future capital of a reunified Germany. Some senior officials in the US De- lace the Communists had no chance of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev partment of State had favored abandon- winning free elections. called it “the most dangerous place in the ing Berlin. They opposed the position The Federal Republic of Germany, world.” Nowhere else did the superpow- of Gen. Lucius D. Clay, commander consisting of the consolidated Western ers confront each other so closely and of US forces in Europe and military zones, was established in May 1949 constantly. West Berlin was a source of governor of the US zone in Germany, with its capital at Bonn. In anticipation embarrassment and aggravation to the who was unswerving in his determina- of eventual reunification, West Germany Communist East German regime, which tion to break the blockade. President offered citizenship to all Germans, suffered by comparison. Large numbers Harry Truman backed Clay and the wherever they lived. Ulbricht’s regime, of East Germans, especially skilled airlift succeeded. Clay would return the German Democratic Republic, be- workers, fled to the West through Berlin. to play a leading role in the 1961 Ber- gan in October 1949 and claimed East Three times in the decades follow- lin Crisis, as would another principal Berlin as its capital, which ignored the ing World War II, the Soviet Union provoked crisis in Berlin. The third and last of these crises was set in motion June 4, 1961, when Khrushchev gave Western armed forces six months to get out of Berlin. The Russians had made similar demands before, but this time, Staff map by Zaur Eylanbekov they held the hard line and the situation escalated rapidly. The Berlin Wall, constructed by the East Germans beginning Aug. 13 that year, cut off access to West Berlin. For those attempting to escape, the East German border guards had shoot-to- kill orders. As the crisis escalated, the US Air Force and the Air National Guard rein- forced NATO with the largest overseas movement of aircraft since World War II. Before it was over, US and Soviet tanks faced each other at point-blank range at Checkpoint Charlie, raising the fear the superpowers would go to war. Ramifications from the Berlin Crisis of 1961 persisted in Cold War relations for AP photo by Kreusch the next 30 years. The roots of the confrontation went back to September 1944, when Allied occupation protocol divided postwar Germany into three zones, and Berlin into three sectors (Soviet, American, and Left: US tanks (foreground) and Soviet tanks face off at Checkpoint Charlie in Ber- British). The protocol was amended in lin in October 1961. For 16 tense hours, the world watched as the two superpowers stared one another down. Above: A map of Berlin, divided into four zones by the July 1945 to provide France a role in Allies after World War II, shows how West Berlin was completely surrounded by the occupation. communist East Germany. Smack in the center is Checkpoint Charlie. AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2011 93 Berlin, were not met. The Paris summit fell apart when the Soviets shot down an ANG photo American U-2 spyplane over their terri- tory in May 1960 and captured the pilot. Khrushchev calculated his chances of success on Berlin might improve with the younger, less-experienced John F. Kennedy, who won the presi- dential election in November 1960. The third Berlin crisis was about to begin. Threats at the Summit The Kennedy Administration took office in January 1961 intent on a new approach. “Truman and Eisenhower believed that Hitler had started World War II because he had thought that his enemies were weak and not ready to act,” said Cold War historian W. R. Smyser. “They strengthened and united An F-104 from the 151st Fighter-Interceptor Group, McGhee-Tyson AFB, Tenn., is the West to avoid having Moscow loaded onto a C-124 for transport. The 151st FIS set a record for flying hours per jet fighter in 1962. repeat Hitler’s mistake. But Kennedy and his advisors looked more closely city’s four-power status. In 1952, East crisis with a demand on Nov. 27, 1958, at the events that had led to World Germany closed and fortified the border that the Western powers renounce their War I. They believed that a sequence with West Germany, although no barriers rights in Berlin and “make it possible to of mutually threatening mobilization were erected in Berlin. create a normal situation in the capital plans and actions had gotten out of hand Stalin died in 1953 and was succeeded of the German Democratic Republic.” and escalated into war in 1914. They by Khrushchev, who became First Sec- If the Allies did not do so within six thought that US policy should strive retary of the Communist Party in 1953 months, the Soviet Union would transfer to avoid such misunderstandings.” and Premier in 1958. He inherited the to Ulbricht’s GDR full control of East Most of the White House staff and Berlin problem—and Ulbricht. Berlin and the access routes to West much of the State Department favored a East Germany was the keystone of Berlin. That would end the USSR’s client empire in Europe and four-power control of could not be allowed to fail. In 1953, the city and force the Soviet tanks were called in to suppress a West to deal directly revolt by East German workers reacting with Ulbricht. to harsh living conditions, higher taxes, British Prime Minis- and increased work quotas. ter Harold Macmillan, fearful of the risk of war, The Second Crisis wanted to make con- The Berlin problem had not been cessions right away but Picture Alliance/DPA photo by Otto Noecker solved in 1948, only put into remis- President Eisenhower sion. From the East German and Soviet would not be stampeded. perspective, the Allied enclave was a Negotiations led to a foreign body in their territory. Berlin visit by Khrushchev to forced a side-by-side comparison of Eisenhower’s presiden- West German success and East Ger- tial retreat at Camp Da- man bumbling. It was also a magnet vid in Maryland where for emigrants. By 1958, four million the two leaders made East Germans had fled with Berlin as plans for a summit meet- the favorite escape route. ing in Paris the follow- Khrushchev believed the “correlation ing May to continue the of forces” was moving in his direction. discussion. Soviet power and prestige had grown Khrushchev withdrew since 1948. The United States no longer his six-month deadline, had a monopoly on nuclear weapons and but in a drunken New the USSR was first to launch an ICBM Year’s Eve party in Mos- and first in space with the Sputnik satel- cow, threatened the US lite in 1957. ambassador with nuclear Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev shakes his fist during Ulbricht stepped up his pleas for the war if his demands, in- a 1960 press conference in Paris. Khrushchev believed “neutralization” of West Berlin, and cluding the withdrawal his chances of success in Berlin were greater with the Khrushchev set off the second Berlin of Allied troops from election of US President John Kennedy. 94 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2011 softer line on Berlin. Their counsel was He had already stockpiled balanced somewhat by Dean Acheson, enough barbed wire to the flinty former Secretary of State for seal the 27-mile dividing Truman, brought out of retirement as line between sectors and a special advisor and who was wither- strengthen the 69-mile ing in his contempt for the soft liners. outer perimeter separat- In the first six months of 1961 alone, ing West Berlin from the 100,000 East Germans crossed over East German countryside. to the West. Ulbricht complained that Berlin awoke Aug. 13 West Berlin was “sucking out” the East to find the barricades in German workforce. place. After waiting for A summit meeting between Kennedy three days to see if the and Khrushchev was arranged for June West reacted, Khrushchev 1961, but before then, Khrushchev’s allowed Ulbricht to begin impression of the US President was building the brick and con- reinforced by the Bay of Pigs fiasco crete barrier that would be in April—and Kennedy’s mishandling known as the Berlin Wall.