The Berlin Wall

On the 13th of August 1961, the communist East German government began construction of the Berlin Wall, which separated West Berlin from East Berlin and the rest of East Germany, as a response to immense numbers of East German citizens fleeing into West Berlin. The East German government called the Wall the "anti-fascist protection wall". The tensions between east and west were aggravated by a tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie on 27 October 1961. West Berlin was now a part of West Germany, but with a unique legal status, while East Berlin was a part of East Germany. Various events had led to the establishment of this wall and it brought about certain effects on the cold war.

During the earlier stages of the cold war, Germany was the main focus with its division in the Potsdam conference (1945) and the Berlin blockade. Later on, the cold war moved from Europe (Hungary and Poland) to Asia (Korea) and African (Suez Canal). However, after the Berlin wall incident, Germany was the main point of interest again. The Soviets were concerned that Germany would recover from its WWII military and economic status and pose a threat to them while the West was worried about losing Germany as a source of influence in Europe. Also, Berlin became important because it was a place where two different ideologies were very close to each other, with Democracy in the west and Communism in the East and Berlin began to look like a sort of war front between the two. The Soviets focused more on Germany because if West Berlin surpassed East Berlin, the whole prestige of international communism would be at stake. However, Khrushchev believed that if he wanted to make the West scream, he'd have to squeeze its testicles and in this case, the testicles is Berlin and he was aware that the West would not want to risk a war over Berlin. For the west, failure in Berlin could disrupt NATO and weaken American influence in West Germany which was the key to the balance of power in Europe

The second Berlin crisis brought both superpowers to the brink of a hot war. A NSC staffer called Carl Kaysen told Kennedy, that he had prepared a study on the possibility of a limited first strike against the Soviet Union if the situation in Berlin threatened to become more dangerous. Both powers spent time in building up their military force in the region since 1955, with missiles aimed at each other from each side of the wall . On 25 July President Kennedy requested an increase in the Army's total authorized strength from 875,000 to about 1 million men, along with an increase of 29,000 and 63,000 men from the Navy and the Air Force. Additionally, he ordered that draft calls be doubled, He also requested new funds to identify and mark space in existing structures that could be used for fall-out shelters in case of attack, to stock those shelters with food, water, first-aid kits and other minimum essentials for survival, and to improve air-raid warning and fallout detection systems. Soviets were being very watchful as the wall was being built. During its construction, the west sent diplomats into East Berlin with the company of some tanks, the Soviets misunderstood, thinking the West had intentions of bringing down the wall and they deployed more force at the wall. Consequently, there was some tension at Checkpoint Charlie, which was cooled later when John. F. Kennedy told Nikita Khrushchev to tell his people to fall back and he'd do the same.

The Berlin wall became a symbol of propaganda for both sides. For the soviets it was more of a failed attempt of propaganda. This is because it made the wall look like a symbol of tyranny. In order to save their economy, Soviets locked the East Berliners inside and anyone that tried to pass it would be shot for doing so and thousands tried to escape while some say up to 171 people died during an attempt to do so. On the other hand, the West used it as a method of showing the world that democracy was the better way to go. "Freedom has many flaws and our democracy is imperfect, but we have never had to put up a wall to keep our people in." and "There are many people in the world who really don't understand-or say they don't-what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin!" (John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917 - 1963)). These quotes are proof of how the West used the wall as an advantage. The East German government claimed that the Wall was an "anti-fascist protection barrier" ("antifaschistischer Schutzwall"), intended to discourage hostility from the West, despite the fact that the entire wall's defenses pointed inward to East German territory and Thus, this position was viewed with skepticism even in East Germany; the construction of the Berlin wall had caused hardship to families that were divided by the Wall, and the Western view that the Wall was meant to prevent the citizens of East Germany from entering West Berlin was widely seen as being the truth.

In conclusion, the Berlin crisis and erection of the Berlin wall were very important because it turned all focus to Germany, was the first place the US and the USSR almost had a direct hot war and finally, because it was a failed attempt of propaganda for the USSR but a successful one for the US. It served as a continuation to the first Berlin crisis during the 40s with the Berlin blockade and airlift.