Berlin Wall
The "Berlin Problem"
Berlin had been divided since 1945. The USSR controlled East Berlin while the West became an island of capitalism behind the Iron Curtain.
The USSR saw West Berlin as an embarrassment, while the West saw it as a strategic and symbolic victory.
The city had been the centre of some of the biggest tension-causing events, most notably the Berlin Blockade.
Inequalities in Berlin
West Berlin citizens enjoyed freedom and luxuries
East Berlin citizens lived in a tightly controlled state.
Many East Germans took the opportunity to defect to the Wets through Berlin. By 1961, thousands were crossing every day. because the vast percentage of these people were intellectuals, this was called the "brain drain".
The Wall
With thousands defecting every day, the USSR had to stop it somehow. On 13 August 1961, East German troops closed the border and stopped anyone from crossing.
Within just a few hours, barbed wire fences were put up and trains were stopped from crossing the border. The fences zigzagged through the middle of the city, dividing streets and even buildings.
Over the following week, the fence was replaced with a concrete wall.
This wall would remain in place for nearly 30 years.
Reasons for the Berlin Wall
The official reason was that it was to stop Western spies entering Soviet territory.
In reality it was to stop the educated people leaving East Germany.
It also stopped those in East Berlin from seeing what life was like in the West.
In the short term, this did cause tension. However, in longer term, this told the West that the East wouldn't invade Berlin, decreasing tension.
Checkpoint Charlie
This was one of the guarded crossing points between East and West Berlin.
Foreigners were still allowed to cross the wall, and the US regularly sent troops and diplomats into the Soviet sector through Checkpoint Charlie.
Both sides were entitled to do this under the authority of the four Allied powers, made after the Yalta Conference .
On 27 October 1961, Soviet tanks pulled up to Checkpoint Charlie and refused to allow Americans to pass into the Eastern sector. All day long the two sides faced each other in a tense standoff. It lasted 18 hours until a diplomatic agreement was reached and both sides began to back down.
It was very clear that the USA would not take military action against the Soviet Union in its own geographical and political sphere of influence and risk open conflict between the two nuclear superpowers.