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Cold War Crisis (1958-70) (Part 1) (Conferences (Vienna (June 1961)…
Cold War Crisis (1958-70) (Part 1)
Khrushchev's Ultimatum
Wanted Berlin to be demilitarised
Wanted Berlin to be a free city and have an independent government
Consequences of ultimatum
Anger
West saw this an attempt to take over Berlin
Soviets were trying to make West Berlin more vulnerable to attack from USSR soldiers
West assumed this was an attempt to spread communism
Negotiations
Neither side wanted to risk a nuclear war over Berlin
Both sides had so many nuclear weapons that a position of MAD had been reached
Conferences
Paris (May 1960)
Before conference, USSR shot down the U2 plane
Eisenhower refused to apologie for the spy plane incident
Khrushchev was very angry and no decisions were made. Tensions now increased
Camp David (Sept. 1959)
Eisenhower and Khrushchev meet face to face
No agreement was made about a long term solution
Khrushchev withdraws the ultimatum which decreases tensions
Agreement for further talks
Geneva (May 1959)
Both sides put forward their initial proposals
This was a preliminary meeting
Eisenhower invites Khrushchev
Vienna (June 1961)
Khrushchev thought he could bully Kennedy as he was new
Khrushchev reiterated the ultimatum which put a lot of pressure on Kennedy
Kennedy refused to give in to his demands
As a result Kennedy increased US defence by $2 billion per year
Was a total failure. Tensions increased further
Berlin Wall
Barrier to keep East Germans in
By 1958, 3 million East Germans had defected to West
By 1961, 20,000 refugees were flooding into West Berlin from East Berlin
13 August 1961, wall had upgrades and included two higher concrete walls
Consequence of the Brain Drain where intelligent people were defecting because of the poor living conditions and how bad the economy was in West Berlin
East Germans killed
Special group of East Germans called Grenztruppen patrolled the wall
24 hours a day, there were 14,000 soldiers
Over 130 people were killed trying to get through Berlin wall
Peter Fechter died in August 1962 trying to escape with a friend
Impact on Berlin
Berlin was more divided then before
Families, friends and neighbours were unable to see eachother ant more
There was no travel permitted but these rules were relaxed for West Berliners
Became possible from West Berliners to cross if you had correct authorisation. Westerns could cross points like
Checkpoint Charlie
Consequences of Berlin Wall
Temporary increase in tensions
Both sides tanks faced each-other at checkpoint Charlie (27-28 October 1961)
Both sides tried to face down the other sides, revving their engines suggests they were not afraid of the other side
USA did not like how Easy German police stopped American officials from crossing boarder
Kennedy and Khrushchev had a phone call and agreed to end the standoff at checkpoint Charlie
This was a
short term
impact
Long term decrease in tensions
This meant that Khrushchev no longer felt the need to issue threats of ultimatum
Construction of Berlin wall showed that the USSR would accept West Berlin would remain capitalist
Flow of migrants stopped and USSR was reassured and was under less pressure
Reassured the USA which no longer believed that Khrushchev would try and use force to capture West Berlin
Cold War became more stable and more certain
Division of Berlin
East Germans could not go through boarder at all
Families and friends were spilt up and were no longer able to see one another
You could not go through border without special permission
Trade no longer existed and the steady flow of migrants from East to West stopped
This was now a 'hard border'
Determination of USA to defend West Berlin was reaffirmed
USA would defend West Berlin at all cost
USA would stand up to Soviet Union and East Germany if there was any threat
USA created a situation where they could not back down / afford to lose
June 1963 Kennedy made it clear but saying America is on your side