After the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union had conflicts over the distribution of occupied areas. The result of this intransigence and intransigence was the complete division of an originally united Germany into two states, the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR, east and west Germany.
The event has been dubbed the First Berlin Crisis. To everyone's surprise, the competition between the two camps for Germany did not end there, but intensified, which will eventually lead to the deepening of the contradictions between the two camps.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > first, the instability before the storm</h1>
In the mid-1950s, the contradictions between the Soviet Union and the West over Germany and Berlin became more acute, and even a crisis broke out over the Berlin problem for several years. On the U.S. side, the crisis spans even two presidential terms.
After the division of Germany, West Berlin under Western occupation became a "thorn in the eye" of the Soviet Union. The presence of West Berlin is a key layout of the West's foreign strategy. The United States regarded West Berlin as an important basis for the implementation of the "liberation strategy" and the "peace strategy", while the Soviet Union regarded it as a tool for the West to carry out hostile activities against the East.
After World War II, German territory was fragmented
In March 1958, the West German Parliament passed a resolution deciding to arm its own army with atomic weapons. This meant that the Western military threat facing the Soviet Union was further intensified. On October 27 of the same year, the East German government condemned the Western forces for violating the relevant requirements, and demanded that the Western countries completely withdraw from the city of Berlin and cancel all corresponding rights, making the already tense situation in Berlin tense again.
Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, the American and Soviet forces facing each other
The Soviet Union expressed support for the East German position. On November 10, Khrushchev made accusations against the United States, Britain, and France at a mass meeting, stressing the need to reconsider Berlin's status and withdraw from occupation. According to the Soviet Union, West Berlin must be "demilitarized" without any restrictions, otherwise the right to transit inspection in West Berlin will be reconsidered. It is even likened to a "cancer" that requires political surgery to get rid of it.
The Soviet Union's tough stance was in fact an "ultimatum" to resolve the issue of the legal status of West Berlin. The three Western powers reacted strongly to this and rejected the Soviet proposal. In January 1959, Eisenhower decided to prepare for war in the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin. In the face of strong reaction from the West, the attitude of the Soviet Union began to soften, and the Soviet Union repeatedly expressed its desire to negotiate on the Berlin issue. However, the West has refused to hold summit talks, preferring only a meeting of foreign ministers. In May and July 1959, the two sides met in Geneva in two phases to discuss the peace treaty with Germany.
During the meeting, former U.S. Secretary of State Dulles died. According to diplomatic practice, Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko went to the United States on May 27 to attend the funeral, and this goodwill eased relations between the two sides slightly, and the United States and the Soviet Union took the opportunity to hold brief talks, but due to the distance between the two sides, no agreement could be reached. In September, Khrushchev announced that he had waived the ultimatum to resolve the Berlin issue within six months in order to defuse the situation in exchange for U.S. support for the convening of the four-nation summit.
Wreckage of a U-2 U.S. reconnaissance plane shot down by the Soviet Union
Just as everything was moving in the direction of détente, on May 1, 1960, the American pilot Francis Bowles piloted a U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, and while reconnaissance in Soviet airspace, he was shot down by Soviet MiG-19 fighters, and he himself was captured, known as the "Bowers Incident". Of course, this kind of military provocation could not be accepted by the Soviet side, and the original talks ended in the end because of this storm.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, escalation, military confrontation</h1>
After the new US President Kennedy came to power, Khrushchev again proposed an ultimatum to resolve the Berlin issue within half a year during the Vienna talks, but the former rejected it on the spot. According to the Soviet Union's idea, if the four powers could not reach an agreement on the Berlin issue within half a year, the Soviet Union would sign a treaty with East Germany alone, and the latter could arrange border arrangements with Western countries.
On June 15, after the United States announced its rejection of the proposal, Khrushchev delivered a televised speech stating that the peace treaty with Germany must be resolved that year and that the Soviet Union had the ability to counter the threat of force. In July, Khrushchev announced the strengthening of soviet military power to guard against the unforeseen events that would result.
On the other hand, the three Western powers did not compromise, warning that Soviet policy was extremely dangerous. The US side said that it would never allow the Soviet Union to use force to drive Western forces out of Berlin, and was determined to defend the rights of the West in West Berlin. To this end, the US side has also correspondingly increased its military strength, recruited reserve personnel, increased the strength of its troops in Europe and the United States, and called for strengthening military preparations. The situation in Berlin is once again tense.
The reaction became more intense, and many East Germans began to move their families. By the summer of 1961, 3.5 million people, many of whom were skilled workers and technicians, flowed from East Germany into West Berlin and West Germany, causing the GDR to suffer enormous economic losses. In early August 1961, the Warsaw Pact countries held consultations to support the East German government in taking measures on the situation.
East German soldier Schumann's "earth-shattering leap"
On 12 August, the East German government decided to tighten border controls and not to leave the country at will unless there is a special need. That night, the East German government pulled up 170 kilometers of barricades and barbed wire along the west Berlin border, and in order to ensure that those who had escaped illegally could be "punished" by the East Germans who had escaped illegally, the barbed wire was appropriately modified and changed when it was built.
The Berlin Wall under construction
From August 17, a new concrete wall began to be put into use. This was followed by the installation of additional components, which in turn extended the scope of the blockade. Finally, on November 20, 1961, the famous "Berlin Wall" was completed, and since then, in order to ensure its fortification, defensive measures have been added to the wall and around the wall, completely sealing the passage between East Germany and the outside world.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > third, the relaxation of the situation</h1>
The creation of the "Berlin Wall" accelerated the original crisis in Berlin. The United States and the Soviet Union resumed nuclear tests one after another and held joint military exercises with their respective allies. The atmosphere of war hung over all of Europe. But at the end of the day, neither side wants to go to war over Berlin. Both Khrushchev and Kennedy knew very well that once the two powers went to war over Berlin, Europe would once again become a hell on earth. As a result, both the United States and the Soviet Union adopted a tacit attitude towards cross-border behavior.
For example, the Soviet Union and East Germany, while taking a tough stance, left a certain amount of room for maneuver and did not completely restrict the freedom of traffic between the two places. Even after the situation in Berlin intensified, the United States sent 1,500 troops along the highway through the GDR to aid West Berlin, without being stopped along the way.
The bottom line of the United States in West Berlin is to ensure the "freedom" and "viability" of West Berlin, and whether access is smooth. As a result, the United States and the West eventually tolerated the creation of the Berlin Wall. After that, the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union in Berlin began to cool down. In October, Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko assured Kennedy of freedom of access to and from West Berlin, announcing that West Berlin would not cause a serious humanitarian crisis as a result of the construction of the Berlin Wall.
Kennedy and Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko, 1962
Subsequently, Khrushchev was no longer tough, and he said at the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union that if the Western countries were willing to peacefully resolve the German issue, the Soviet Union would also consider temporarily suspending domestic military operations and negotiating with the United States. The US side welcomes this attitude. In November, Kennedy delivered a speech stressing that "both sides must face reality" and be prepared for war while also preparing for peace negotiations with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union also said that the Berlin issue could be suspended due to the establishment of the Berlin Wall and the signing of a separate non-aggression peace treaty with East Germany.
The second Berlin crisis almost led to a war between the two camps of the United States and the Soviet Union, and eventually the leaders of the two countries calmed down and resolved the crisis peacefully through negotiations. But the Berlin Wall has been built, and it is like a mountain that hangs in the hearts of the People of Berlin and the Germans.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
Although the construction of the "Berlin Wall" represents the further intensification of the Cold War atmosphere, because of the "tacit understanding" of the two sides, the threat of war that was originally on the verge of erupting has cooled down rapidly, which also shows that the East and the West, while confronting each other, still follow their own bottom line, that is, they are justified, but they are not unreasonable.
In the 1990s, as the Cold War atmosphere gradually melted, the two German people, who had been forced to separate, reunited and pushed into the cement wall that had separated the two generations and became a family again.
Resources:
1. History of Germany after World War II
2. History of Postwar International Relations
3. "The Big Chess Game"