Biographical Information:

• Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev: Premier of the Soviet Union during the Berlin crisis.

• Walter Ulbricht: Chancellor of East Germany during the Berlin crisis.

• Dean Rusk: United States Secretary of State during the Berlin crisis.

• John F. Kennedy: President of the United States during the Berlin crisis.

• Willy Brandt: Mayor of West Berlin during the Berlin crisis.
  

On August 13th, 1961, East Germany, in cooperation with the Soviet Union, erected a barrier around West Berlin in order to curb the flow of East German refugees into West Berlin and West Germany.

1. Building a wall which divided the city of Berlin was a major task with major implications for the citizens of East and West Germany and the world. Nikita Khrushchev and Walter Ulbricht were uncontestedly able to construct the Berlin Wall only through a breakdown in Western Allied resolve to prevent them from doing so.
• -June 3rd and 4th, 1961, Vienna Conference between Kennedy and Khrushchev.
Khrushchev demands that the Western Allies conduct a peace treaty with East and West Germany. Allies are given 6 months to do so, or else the Soviet Union and East Germany would conduct a separate peace treaty amongst themselves.
• -June 8, 1961: Khrushchev sends a telegram to the Western Allies protesting West German plans to hold a government meeting in West Berlin. Khrushchev argues that West Berlin is on East German soil, and that therefore, the West German government would be violating the sovereign borders of East Germany.
• -June 9, 1961: Kennedy orders West Germany to conduct the government meeting on West German soil.
• -June15, 1961: Khrushchev threatens the Western Allies with "superior" Eastern Bloc military might if they planned, after the completion of a Soviet/East German peace treaty, to "violate" East German borders through trying to access West Berlin.
• -June 25, 1961: Kennedy announces a build-up of conventional, rather than non-conventional, military weapons. (non-nuclear vs. nuclear weapons)
• -August 9, 1961: Kennedy expresses fear of an East German uprising over impending Soviet/East German measures insighting a military conflict. Official US policy is announced by the White House: the Western Allies will not respond to impending Soviet/East German measures.
  
2. Western Allies' failure to respond to the construction of the Berlin Wall caused much suffering and anxiety for West Berliners who assumed that the West had abandoned them in the face of Eastern Bloc aggression.
   • -August 14th, 1961: 6,000 workers converge on the Schoneberg Rathaus (West Berlin City Hall).
   • -August 16, 1961: Mass rally at Schoneberg Rathaus--250,000 West Berliners.

3. The West had accepted the presence of the Berlin Wall form the very start and had therefore indirectly contributed to a divided Berlin.
   • -August 13, 1961: Dean Rusk's statement that the Western Allies will only issue "vigorous protests through appropriate channels" to the building of the Berlin Wall.
     
   • -August 14, 1961: Willy Brandt sends a letter to Kennedy warning him of low West Berlin moral due to the Western Allies' inaction.
   • -August 19, 1961: Vice President Johnson and General Clay visit Berlin. Johnson speaks to West Berliners. He reassures West Berliners that the Western Allies would protect them from an Eastern Bloc advancement into West Berlin. Also, Johnson states that the Allies will not be "belligerent" but would be "firm" in dealing with Soviet/East German activity in Berlin. The West therefore accepts the status quo in Berlin.
     
     In backing down to Eastern Bloc threats, Kennedy had permitted the Berlin Wall to be constructed. However, he was faced with a difficult choice: If he, and the Western Allies, had been "belligerent", nuclear war quite possibly could have been the result.
     And in backing down, as he did, Kennedy lost a major Cold War psychological battle.
     

• Cate, Curtis, The Ides of August
• Wyden, Peter, Wall: The Inside Story of Divided Berlin