Berlin 1961 (85 page)

During an hour’s drive:
William R. Smyser,
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall: “A Hell of a Lot Better Than a War,”
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009, 101–103, 174; “Wir machen Berlin dicht—Die Berliner Mauer (III) Der. 13. August,”
Der Spiegel
, 10/16/1989; Mara et al.,
Kontrollpunkt Kohlhasenbrück.

The diplomats had gathered:
Gelb,
The Berlin Wall
, 161–162.

At 11:00 a.m. Berlin time:
DNSA, East German Regime to Seal East Berlin from West, Confidential, Cable 176, August 13, 1961, 1 a.m.; DNSA, Summary of Events in Berlin from Early Morning to Mid-Afternoon, Confidential, Cable 186, August 13, 1961, 10 p.m.; Department of State, Central Files, 862.181/8-1361, in FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, Doc. 104.

West Berliners’ mood:
Interview with Klaus-Detlef Brunzel, Berlin, October 23, 2008.

Before long, the West Berlin fury:
Interview with Klaus-Detlef Brunzel, Berlin, October 23, 2008.

General Watson:
“Commandant in Berlin,”
New York Times
, 08/14/1961.

There were also times:
Gelb,
The Berlin Wall
, 165.

Early that morning, Watson:
Gelb,
The Berlin Wall
, 165; Cate,
The Ides of August
, 301–302, 275.

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas McCord:
Catudal,
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis
, 229–230, 232.

All eyes had then turned:
Letter from Colonel Ernest von Pawel to Catudal, August 3, 1977, in Catudal,
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis
,
234.

The deputy chief:
Wyden,
Wall
, 92, from Pawel interview; Catudal,
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis
, 229–230, 232–235.

“The Soviet 19th Motorized”:
Gelb,
The Berlin Wall
, 160.

Adam recalled a more innocent:
Interview with Adam Kellett-Long, London, October 15–16, 2008.

Under four-power agreements:
Smyser,
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall
, 106; Howard Trivers,
Three Crises in American Foreign Affairs and a Continuing Revolution.
Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1972, 24–25.

When he first heard:
Cate,
The Ides of August
, 162–163.

Then he set off:
Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv,
Stimmen des 20. Jahrhunderts CD—Berlin, 13 August 1961
, produced by Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin and Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv Frankfurt am Main and Potsdam-Babelsberg: http://www.dra.de/publikationen/cds/stimmen/cd25.html.

Lochner the next day showed:
Smyser,
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall
, 115–116; Wyden,
Wall
, 166–167; Lothar Kettenacker,
Germany 1989: In the Aftermath of the Cold War
. London: Pearson Longman, 2009, 51.

From noon on Saturday: Washington Post
, 08/14/1961, 08/15/1961;
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 08/14/1961.

Honecker phoned Ulbricht: Washington Post
, 08/14/1961.

Khrushchev would reflect:
Nikita S. Khrushchev,
Khrushchev Remembers
, 455.

15.
THE WALL: DESPERATE DAYS

“Why would Khrushchev”:
O’Donnell and Powers, with McCarthy,
“Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,”
303.

“The Russians…feel”:
Arthur M. Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy and His Times.
New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1978/2002, 430.

Until August 13, Litfin:
“Erstes Maueropfer Günter Litfin—’Tod durch fremde Hand,’”
Der Spiegel
(online), 09/02/2007; Hans-Hermann Hertle,
Die Todesopfer an der Berliner Mauer 1961–1989: Ein biographisches Handbuch
. Berlin: Christoph Links, 2009, 37–39.

The two brothers then reflected:
Christian F. Ostermann,
Uprising in East Germany 1953: The Cold War, the German Question, and the First Major Upheaval Behind the Iron Curtain
. Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2001, 169.

He closely followed:
“Scores Flee to West Despite Red Guards,”
Washington Post
, 08/15/1961.

Günter Litfin would be the first: Tagesspiegel
, 08/25/1961.

By comparison, the East Berliner:
Cate,
The Ides of August
, 399.

A little more than two days:
Wyden,
Wall
, 221.

CBS correspondent Daniel Schorr:
Wyden,
Wall
, 220; Daniel Schorr Papers, Library of Congress.

A fluke of prewar planning:
Taylor,
The Berlin Wall
, 186–187.

As a result, Berlin’s Cold War:
Regine Hildebrandt, oral history interview, Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer; also see www.dradio.de: Hörbeispiel: Erinnerungen an den Bau der Berliner Mauer vor 40 Jahren: Regine Hildebrandt (SPD), Berlinerin.

Like many of the soldiers:
Jürgen Petschull,
Die Mauer: August 1961: Zwölf Tage zwischen Krieg und Frieden
. Hamburg: Gruner + Jahr, 1981, 149–152.

The young man raced off:
Peter Leibing, oral history interview, October 8, 2001, www.jungefreiheit.de, Moritz Schwarz, “‘Na, springt der?’ Peter Leibing über die spektakuläre Flucht des DDR-Grenzers Conrad Schumann und das Foto seines Lebens.

So while Brandt prepared:
Horst Osterheld, “
Ich gehe nicht leichten Herzens…” Adenauers letzte Kanzlerjahre: Ein dokumentarischer Bericht
. Mainz: Matthias-Grünewald, 1986, 59–60; Konrad Adenauer,
Teegespräche 1959–1961
(Rhöndorfer Ausgabe), ed. Hanns Jürgen Küsters. Berlin: Siedler, 1988, 541, 546.

Within forty-eight hours:
Donald P. Steury, ed.,
On the Front Lines of the Cold War: Documents on the Intelligence War in Berlin, 1946 to 1961.
Washington, D.C.: CIA, Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1999; Current Intelligence Weekly Summary, August 17, 1961, 576–582: VII-6: CIWS: Berlin, August 17, 1961 (MORI No. 28205), 582.

British Prime Minister Macmillan, the ally:
London
Times
, August 26, 1961.

However, Adenauer’s response:
Heinrich Krone,
Tagebücher
. Vol. 2:
1961–1966
. Ed. Hans-Otto Kleinmann. Düsseldorf: Forschungen und Quellen zur Zeitgeschichte, 2003, 15; Konrad Adenauer,
Erinnerungen 1959–1963 (Fragmente).
Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1968, 122.

Only at that point:
Archiv für Christlich-Demokratische Politik, Aufzeichnung der Unterredung Adenauer’s mit Smirnow, August 16, 1961, N. L. Globke Papers, I-070-(2/1.1); Hans-Peter Schwarz,
Konrad Adenauer
. Vol. 2:
The Statesman, 1952–1967
, trans. Geoffrey Penny. Providence, RI: Berghahn Books, 1997, 540–541 (English trans. of
Adenauer
. Vol. 2:
Der Staatsmann: 1952–1967
. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1991).

Less than forty-eight hours:
Prittie,
Konrad Adenauer
, 286;
Christian Science Monitor
,
Washington Post
,
New York Times
, 08/16/1961;
New York Times
, 08/30/1961.

Brandt, who until then:
Peter Merseburger,
Willy Brandt 1913–1992: Visionär und Realist
. Stuttgart and Munich: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2002, 406–407;
Die Zeit
, 08/18/1961.

Brandt realized that perhaps: New York Times
, 08/17/1961;
Washington Post
, 08/17/1961;
Bild-Zeitung
, 08/16/1961.

After wiping the sweat:
Archiv Deutschlandradio,
Die Zeit im Funk
, RIAS, Rede von Willy Brandt auf einer Protestkundgebung vor dem Rathaus Schöneberg, Ausschnitte (excerpt of Willy Brandt speech to protesters at Schöneberg/West Berlin city hall), August, 16, 1961: www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Media/VideoPopup/day/16/field/audio_video/id/15023/month/August/oldAction/Detail/oldModule/Chronical/year/1961.

He considered the letter from Mayor:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, Doc. 117, Telegram from the Mission at Berlin to the Department of State, Berlin, August 16, 1961, midnight.

“Trust?”
Kennedy spat:
Petschull,
Die Mauer
, 157; Wyden,
Wall
, 224; Jean Edward Smith,
The Defense of Berlin
, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1963, 283–284; Washington, D.C.,
Daily News
, 08/17/1961; Washington, D.C.,
Evening Star
, 08/18/1961.

The State Department:
Washington, D.C.,
Daily News
, 08/17/1961; Washington, D.C.,
Evening Star
, 08/18/1961.

Brandt would later take credit:
Petschull,
Die Mauer
, 159; Hermann Zolling and Uwe Bahnsen,
Kalter Winter im August. Die Berlin-Krise 1961–1963. Ihre Hintergründe und Folgen.
Oldenburg and Hamburg: Gerhard Stalling, 1967, 147.

Kennedy came to accept:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, Doc. 120, Letter from President Kennedy to Governing Mayor Brandt, Washington, August 18, 1961; JFKL, NSF, Germany, Berlin, Brandt Correspondence, Secret.

Brandt read Kennedy’s response:
Willy Brandt,
Erinnerungen.
Frankfurt am Main: Propyläen, and Zurich: Ferenczy, 1989, 58, 63; Merseburger,
Willy Brandt
, 405.

“Why would Khrushchev put up”:
O’Donnell and Powers, with McCarthy,
“Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,”
303.

Kennedy had little sympathy:
James Reston, “Hyannisport—A Cool Summer Visitor from Washington,”
New York Times
, 09/06/1961.

In the first days:
JFKL,
Dr. Wilhelm Grewe OH
, November 2, 1966, Paris; Reston, “Hyannisport—A Cool Summer Visitor from Washington.”

Khrushchev also reflected later:
Nikita S. Khrushchev,
Khrushchev Remembers: The Glasnost Tapes
, 170.

Khrushchev believed:
Taubman,
Khrushchev
, 506; Sergei N. Khrushchev,
Krizisy i Rakety
, vol. 1, 132–135.

Khrushchev concluded beyond any doubt:
Nikita S. Khrushchev,
Khrushchev Remembers: The Last Testament
, 502–505, 509.

More dramatic yet:
“Russia Exhibits Atomic Infantry,”
New York Times
, 08/18/1961; Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 385.

“Fucked again”:
Wyden,
Wall
, 246; Schlesinger,
A Thousand Days
, 459; Beschloss,
The Crisis Years
, 291.

Bobby recalled what Chip:
Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy and His Times
, 429–430, citing RFK Papers,
RFK
, dictated September 1, 1961.

It was not the first time Vice President:
Theodore C. Sorensen,
Kennedy
. New York: HarperCollins, 1965, 594.

Johnson grew all the more:
Dallek,
An Unfinished Life
, 427; Petschull,
Die Mauer
, 161–162; O’Donnell and Powers, with McCarthy,
“Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye,”
303.

During their overnight flight:
Cate,
The Ides of August
, 405–407; JFKL,
Lucius D. Clay OH
;
Lucius D. Clay OH
(Columbia Oral History Project).

Speaking to the West Berlin:
Wyden,
Wall
, 229; “Text of VP Johnson’s Address in West Berlin,”
Washington Post
, 08/20/1961;
New York Times
, 08/22/1961.

“The city was like”:
“300,000 Applaud,”
New York Times
, 08/20/1961.

For Kennedy, the troop:
Schlesinger,
A Thousand Days
, 395; Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 594.

British Prime Minister
: Macmillan,
Pointing the Way, 1959–1961
, 393.

The operation’s commander:
William D. Ellis and Thomas J. Cunningham,
Clarke of St. Vith: The Sergeants’ General
. Cleveland: Dillon/Liederbach, 1974, 260–261.

For all the details his superiors:
Wyden,
Wall
, 230–232.