1.7 The Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis

• West Berlin


  • It was a notable area of territory, controlled by their potential enemy, deep within the Soviet sphere of influence
  • East Germans were very aware of the higher standard of living, the greater access to resources and to freedom which were being enjoyed in West Berlin
  • Hundreds of thousands of East Germans were fleeing to West Berlin every year – making a total of 3.5 million by 1961
  • Educated East Germans were staying in the East long enough to get a free education and then fleeing to high-paying jobs in the West. This was a brain drain
• Khrushchev's demand and Kennedy's response

  1. Khrushchev demanded that President John F. Kennedy (the new US president) remove all troops from Berlin

  2. Kennedy refused and instead increased troops there
• Creation of the Berlin Wall

  1. Khrushchev ordered a barbed-wire fence to be erected between the two zones of Berlin

  2. This was soon replaced by a wall

  3. All free movement between the two sides was forbidden
• The creation of the Berlin Wall did not lead to war, but it remained a symbol of the division between the two superpowers throughout the Cold War
• The 1950s and early 1960s


  • Saw a steady increase in Cold War tension as new weapons technology developed nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them
• Cuba became the next hotspot in the Cold War


  • In 1959, the anti-Communist dictator of Cuba, Batista, was overthrown by the Communist Fidel Castro
  • Castro was then supported by funds from the USSR to protect Cuba against the USA
• Kennedy's attempt to overthrow Castro

  President Kennedy attempted to overthrow Castro in 1961, but the Bay of Pigs was a disaster and a humiliation for Kennedy
• Discovery of nuclear missile facilities in Cuba

  1. On 14 October 1962, a US U-2 spy plane took a series of photographs over Cuba

  2. It spotted what was quickly realised to be launch facilities for nuclear weapons
• US reaction to the discovery

  1. The US reaction was swift: Kennedy was informed and he quickly established ExComm

  2. The solution agreed on was a naval blockade around Cuba
• Kennedy made a speech on live TV to announce the blockade. The world was on the brink of nuclear war
• Secret negotiations to end the conflict

  1. There had been the suggestion that in return for the Soviet withdrawal from Cuba, the USA would remove its Jupiter IRBMs from Turkey

  2. During the middle of the night of 26 October, Kennedy's brother Robert, who was attorney general, met in secret with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin

  3. They agreed to the mutual withdrawal, with Robert Kennedy insisting that the US withdrawal from Turkey be kept secret
• As both sides realised how close they had come to global nuclear war, the period following the crisis saw an improvement in relations
• A 'hotline' telephone was set up between the White House and the Kremlin and in 1963 the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was agreed
• The Cuban Missile Crisis was the last direct confrontation between the two countries in the Cold War