Berlin 1961

by Frederick Kempe

  5. ULBRICHT AND ADENAUER: UNRULY ALLIANCES

  “Whatever elections show”: John F. Kennedy, “A Democrat Looks at Foreign Policy,” Foreign Affairs, 36, no. 1 (October 1957), 49.

  “West Berlin is experiencing a growth”: SAPMO-BArch, ZPA, J IV 2/2/743. “Stichwort Protokoll der Beratung des Politbüros am 4. Januar 1961 über ‘Die Gegenwärtige Lage und die Hauptaufgaben 1961,’” Politbüro, “Reinschriftenprotokoll Nr. 1 vom 4.1.1961.”

  At age sixty-seven: Mario Frank, Walter Ulbricht: Eine Deutsche Biographie. Berlin: Siedler, 2001, 282.

  “Our task was to dispel”: Konrad Adenauer, Memoirs, 1945–1953. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1966, 41, 79.

  Speaking to his subjects: Berliner Zeitung, 01/01/1961.

  Ulbricht had never been: SAPMO-BArch, ZPA, J IV 2/2/743. “Stichwort Protokoll der Beratung des Politbüros am 4. Januar 1961 über ‘Die Gegenwärtige Lage und die Hauptaufgaben 1961,’” Politbüro, “Reinschriftenprotokoll Nr. 1 vom 4.1.1961.”

  Ulbricht’s party lieutenants: Frank, Walter Ulbricht, 344–345.

  Like his mentor Stalin, Ulbricht: Frank, Walter Ulbricht, 287; Thomas Grimm, Das Politbüro Privat—Ulbricht, Honecker, Mielke & Co. aus der Sicht ihrer Angestellten. Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, 2004, 203; Wolfgang Weber, DDR—40 Jahre Stalinismus: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der DDR. Essen: Arbeiterpresse, 1993, 63; Catherine Epstein, The Last Revolutionaries: German Communists and Their Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003, 20–22.

  Ulbricht was also a man: Grimm, Das Politbüro Privat, 203.

  At six in the morning: Weber, DDR—40 Jahre Stalinismus, 159.

  Wolfgang Leonhard, the youngest member: Wolfgang Leonhard, Child of the Revolution. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1958, 300, 303.

  Ulbricht snapped: Leonhard, Child of the Revolution, 312.

  One example came in 1946: Weber, DDR—40 Jahre Stalinismus, 16–17.

  As late as April 1952: “Record of Conversation of Leaders of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany W. Pieck, W. Ulbricht, and O. Grotewohl with J. V. Stalin,” April 7, 1952, reprinted in 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, 38.

  Though the chancellor: Henning Köhler, Adenauer: Eine politische Biographie. Frankfurt am Main: Propyläen, 1994, 730.

  Yet Kennedy’s undisciplined: Terence Prittie, Konrad Adenauer, 1876–1967. London: Tom Stacey, 1972, 283.

  Nevertheless, the chancellor smiled: Der Spiegel, 01/11/1961.

  Adenauer’s young country: Eric Owen Smith, The West German Economy. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983, 18.

  For all that accomplishment: Charles Williams, Adenauer: The Father of the New Germany. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2000, 177; Hans-Peter Schwarz, Konrad Adenauer: A German Politician and Statesman in a Period of War, Revolution and Reconstruction. Vol. 1: From the German Empire to the Federal Republic, 1876–1952. Trans. Louise Willmot. Providence, RI: Berghahn Books, 1995, 154, 160, 357, 402, 602, 604.

  Dean Acheson, President Truman’s: Dean Acheson, Sketches from Life of Men I Have Known. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1961, 169–170.

  An automobile accident: Schwarz, Konrad Adenauer, vol. 1, 108–109.

  Some likened his profile: Valentin Falin, Politische Erinnerungen. Munich: Droemer Knaur, 1993, 328.

  Just eight years after: “Man of the Year: We Belong to the West,” Time, 01/04/1954.

  “The aim of the Russians”: Adenauer, Memoirs, 78–79.

  In Adenauer’s view: Adenauer, Memoirs, 1945–1953, 79.

  Over the two days: Anneliese Poppinga, “Das Wichtigste ist der Mut”: Konrad Adenauer—Die letzten fünf Kanzlerjahre. Bergisch Gladbach, Germany: Gustav Lübbe, 1994, 282.

  During his election campaign: Prittie, Konrad Adenauer, 283.

  Kennedy had been born: Frank A. Mayer, Adenauer and Kennedy: A Study in German-American Relations, 1969–1963. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996.

  Eisenhower’s National Security Council: DDEL, White House Office, Office of the Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (OSANSA), Records, 1952–1961, NSC, Policy Papers Subseries, Box 23, Folder NSC 5803, “U.S. Policy Toward Germany (1),” Operations Coordinating Board, Report on Germany (The Federal Republic, Berlin, East Germany: NSC 5803), November 2, 1960, printed in FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. IX, Berlin Crisis, 1959–1960, p. 697; Adrian W. Schertz, Die Deutschlandpolitik Kennedys und Johnsons: Unterschiedliche Ansätze innerhalb der amerikanischen Regierung. Cologne: Böhlau, 1992, 47.

  U.S. ambassador to Bonn: DNSA, The German Scene at the Turn of the Year. Confidential, Dispatch, 1122, February 8, 1961, Berlin Crisis, Item Number: BC01991.

  With France’s de Gaulle: Eckart Conze, Die gaullistische Herausforderung: Die Deutsch-Französischen Beziehungen in der Amerikanischen Europapolitik 1958–1963. Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1995, 91–94.

  Kennedy’s election had fed: Köhler, Adenauer, 1094.

  Adenauer was painfully aware: Walter Stützle, Kennedy und Adenauer in der Berlin-Krise 1969–1962. Bonn and Bad Godesberg: Neue Gesellschaft, 1973, 19–20; Mayer, Adenauer and Kennedy, 7; John Fitzgerald Kennedy, A Compilation of Statements and Speeches Made During His Service in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1964, 979–980.

  Schumacher, who had lost: Schwarz, Konrad Adenauer, vol. 1, 596–603.

  Acheson had considered Schumacher: Acheson, Sketches, 171.

  Even after his death: Die Zeit, 12/15/1955.

  “Went to bed early”: JFKL, JFK Personal Papers, Diary of European Trip, ms., Box 1; Herbert S. Parmet, Jack: The Struggles of John F. Kennedy. New York: The Dial Press, 1983, 51.

  “We should be ready”: John F. Kennedy and Allan Nevins, The Strategy of Peace. New York: Harper & Row, 1960, 7, 11, 12, 30; Mayer, Adenauer and Kennedy, 8, citing his interview with McGeorge Bundy, August 25, 1988, on “chancellor’s veto.”

  Nothing in Adenauer’s life: Rolf-Dietrich Keil, Mit Adenauer in Moskau—Erinnerungen eines Dolmetschers. Bonn: Bouvier, 1997, 79, 95, 97.

  Adenauer had been shaken: Anneliese Poppinga, Meine Erinnerungen an Konrad Adenauer. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1970, 166.

  Khrushchev got the better: Henry Ashby Turner, The Two Germanies Since 1945. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987, 87.

  “The freedom of 10,000”: Guido Knopp, Die Gefangenen. Munich: Goldmann, 2005, 370.

  Having never forgotten: Mayer, Adenauer and Kennedy, 8, quoting Georg M. Schild, “John F. Kennedy and Berlin,” Paper Presented at the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, June 17–20, 1993; Kennedy and Nevins, The Strategy of Peace, 212–213.

  Adenauer even sent Nixon: Köhler, Adenauer, 1093; Stiftung Bundeskanzler-Adenauer-Haus, III, 6.

  The morning began: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 01/05/1961.

  The official explanation: Williams, Adenauer, 340.

  Born Herbert Frahm: Williams, Adenauer, 488.

  The SPD’s shift: Schwarz, Konrad Adenauer, vol. 1, 524; Bonner Rundschau, 01/06/1961; SPD Press Service, January 4, 1960, P/XV/2.

  Still, Adenauer did not trust: Williams, Adenauer, 488; Schwarz, Konrad Adenauer, vol. 1, 487.

  “Whoever wants to be”: Köhler, Adenauer, 1090; Archiv für Christlich-Demokratische Politik, VIII-001-1503/3; Willy Brandt, Begegnungen und Einsichten. Hamburg: Hoffmann & Campe, 1976, 49.

  He was convinced Khrushchev: Schwarz, Konrad Adenauer, vol. 1, 645.

  Waving his hand, Adenauer: Poppinga, Meine Erinnerungen an Adenauer, 41–42, 51.

  Friedrich Brandt was hiding: Erika Von Hornstein, Flüchtlingsgeschichten: 43 Berichte aus den frühen Jahren der DDR. Nördlingen, Germany: F. Greno, 1985.

  6. ULBRICHT AND ADENAUER: THE TAIL WAGS THE BEAR

  “We are a state”: SAPMO-BArch, ZPA, J IV 2/202/12
9, 1–2. Letter from Ulbricht to Khrushchev, January 18, 1961; SED Archives, IfGA, ZPA, J IV, 2/202/129.

  “The probe which”: SED Archives, IfGA, ZPA, J IV, 2/202/129, Letter from Khrushchev to Ulbricht, January 30, 1961, in Harrison, “Ulbricht and the Concrete ‘Rose,’” CWIHP Working Paper No. 5, Appendix C.

  “Since Comrade Khrushchev’s statement”: SAPMO-BArch, ZPA, J IV 2/202/129, 9-2. Letter from Ulbricht to Khrushchev, January 18, 1961; SED Archives, IfGA, ZPA, J IV, 2/202/129.

  “The booming economy”: Hope M. Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall: Soviet–East German Relations. 1953–1961. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003, 163–164; SAPMO-BArch, ZPA, J IV 2/202/129, January 18, 1961, “Möglichkeiten des taktischen Vorgehens in der Frage Friedensvertrag und Westberlin” and “Massnahmeplan zu organisatorischen Fragen im Zusammenarbeit mit der Vorbereitung des Abschlusses eines Friedensvertrages mit der DDR und der Einberufung einer Friedenskonferenz,” English translation in Harrison, “Ulbricht and the Concrete ‘Rose,’” CWIHP Working Paper No. 5, Appendix B.

  An East German worker: “ West Berlin Shows Progress, Enjoys Best Year Since War,” New York Times, 01/10/1961; “German Reds Say Production Is Up—but Reported Increase Falls Short of Plan; Lags Seen in Vital Industries,” New York Times, 01/10/1961.

  Because of all that: Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall, 150.

  Ulbricht did not seek Khrushchev’s: Donald S. Zagoria, The Sino-Soviet Conflict, 1956–1961. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1962,396.

  Yuri Andropov: Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall, 164–165; Zagoria, The Sino-Soviet Conflict; Chen Jian, Mao’s China and the Cold War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001; Vladislav M. Zubok, “‘Look What Chaos in the Beautiful Socialist Camp!’: Deng Xiaoping and the Sino-Soviet Split, 1956–1963,” CWIHP-B, No. 10 (1998), http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/ACF185.pdf, 152–162; Chen Jian, “Deng Xiaoping, Mao’s ‘Continuous Revolution,’ and the Path Toward the Sino-Soviet Split: A Rejoinder,” CWIHP-B, No. 10 (1998), 162–164, 165–183; Joachim Krüger, “Die Volksrepublik China in der Aussenpolitischen Strategie der DDR (1949–1989),” in Kuo Heng-yue and Mechthild Leutner, eds., Deutschland und China. Beiträge des Zweiten Internationalen Symposiums zur Geschichte der deutsch-chinesischen Beziehungen Berlin 1991 (Berliner China-Studien 21), Munich: Minerva, 1994, 49.

  But everything about: Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall, 165. Harrison draws on a one-page report that was sent by Yuri Andropov to the Central Committee on January 18, 1961, written by I. Kabin, chairman of the German section in the CPSU CC Department on Relations with Communist and Workers’ Parties of Socialist Countries, TsKhSD, R. 8978, F. 5, Op. 49, D. Workers’ Parties of Socialist Countries; TsKhSD, R. 8978, F. 5, Op. 49, D. 377; SAPMO-BArch, ZPA, J IV 2/2/745.

  The Chinese view: “Vermerk über den Antrittsbesuch Botschafter Hegens bei Ministerpräsident der VR China, Genossen Tschou En-lai am 9.6.1961,” written by Hegen, June 12, 1961, Staatsekretär Winzer, MfAA A17879, 2–3, 6.

  “We aren’t China”: AVP-RF, “‘Zapis’ besedy tovarischcha N.S. Khrushcheva s tovarishchem V. Ul’brikhtom, 30 noiabria 1960 goda,” F. 0742, Op. 6, Por. 4, Pap. 43, 14.

  During the Fourth Congress: James S. O’Donnell, A Coming of Age: Albania Under Enver Hoxha. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs (distributed by Columbia University Press), 1999, 52–53.

  Khrushchev’s response landed: SED Archives, IfGA, ZPA, J IV, 2/202/129, Letter from Khrushchev to Ulbricht, January 30, 1961, in Harrison, “Ulbricht and the Concrete ‘Rose,’” CWIHP Working Paper No. 5, Appendix C.

  The clouds were already gathering: Köhler, Adenauer, 1081.

  The West German foreign office: Auswärtiges Amt—Politisches Archiv (AA-PA), 3, Betreff: Political Relations of BRD with United States, 1961.

  In exasperation: Boston Herald, 03/13/1961.

  “The Germans are acutely aware”: DNSA, Discussion with Foreign Minister von Brentano, Position Paper, Washington, February 16, 1961; retrieved from Honoré Marc Catudal, Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis: A Case Study in U.S. Decision Making. Berlin: Berlin Verlag, 1980, 302: Appendix III: Secret Position Paper for visit by Heinrich von Brentano to Washington, February 16, 1961, with anticipated German position and recommended U.S. position.

  Detractors said that Brentano: “Gentleman in Politics: Heinrich von Brentano,” New York Times, 02/18/1961.

  Rusk had supported: JFKL, POF, Memo, Visits of Chancellor Adenauer and Mayor Brandt, Confidential, February 21, 1961, Box 117, Countries. Germany-Security. January–June 1961.

  Kennedy reassured Brentano: Rolf Steininger, Der Mauerbau: Die Westmächte und Adenauer in der Berlinkriese 1958–1963. Munich: Olzog, 2001, 168; FRUS, 1969–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1969–1962, Doc. 5.

  Brentano described to Kennedy: FRUS, 1969–1963, vol. XIV, Doc. 5; JFKL, POF, Memo, Discussion with German Foreign Minister, February 15, 1961, Secret, Box 117, Countries. Germany-Security. January–June 1961.

  More often than not: Prittie, Konrad Adenauer, 255–256; “West Germany: In the Master’s Footsteps,” Time, 10/31/1960.

  “‘An entirely abnormal situation’”: FRUS, 1969–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1969–1962, Docs. 9–31, January–May 1961; Documents on Germany, 1944–1985, 723–727; Documents on International Affairs, 1961, 272–277; Bundesministerium für Innerdeutsche Beziehungen, ed., Dokumente zur Deutschlandpolitik, IV. Reihe, Band 6, Erster Halbband, 1. Januar–30. Mai 1961, Frankfurt am Main, 1975, 345–350. See also Aide-mémoire der Regierung der UdSSR an die Regierung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 17. Februar 1961: http://www.chronik-dermauer.de/index.php/de/Start/Detail/id/758537/page/0).

  7. SPRINGTIME FOR KHRUSHCHEV

  “West Berlin is a bone”: FRUS, 1969–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1969–1962, Doc. 8.

  “It seems more likely”: National Security Archive, Memo, Acheson to the President, April 3, 1961, “April 1961 Folder,” Nuclear History Box 12.

  The Soviet leader’s face: FRUS, 1969–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 42; Michael R. Beschloss, The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960–1963. New York: HarperCollins, 1991, 80–81; William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004, 489.

  It had taken Thompson: FRUS, 1969–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1969–1962, Doc. 8; Hugh Sidey, John F. Kennedy, President. New York: Atheneum, 1964, 163–165; New York Times, 03/04/1961, 03/08/1961, 03/10/1961.

  Just that week: Beschloss, The Crisis Years, 81.

  Moscow’s ally in the Congo: Beschloss, The Crisis Years, 81.

  Facing such an array: New York Times, 03/04/1961.

  Khrushchev’s adviser Oleg Troyanovsky: “Who’s Who with Khrushchev,” Time, 09/21/1959; Troyanovsky, Cherez godi, 233–236; New York Times, 04/03/1955.

  A new Soviet statistical: V. M. Kudrov, “Comparing the Soviet and US Economies: History and Practices,” in Nicholas Eberstadt and Jonathan Tombes, eds., Comparing the US and Soviet Economies: The 1990 Airlie House Conference. Vol. 1, Total Output and Consumption. Washington, DC: The American Enterprise Institute, 2000, 58–59; Alexander Chubarov, Russia’s Bitter Path to Modernity: A History of the Soviet and Post-Soviet Eras. New York: Continuum, 2001, 139; Hannes Adomeit, Imperial Overstretch: Germany in Soviet Policy from Stalin to Gorbachev; An Analysis Based on New Archival Evidence, Memoirs, and Interviews. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 1998, 103.

  In confessing his inadequacy: Stenographic account, February 16, 1961, Declassified Materials from CPSU Central Committee Plenums (TsK KPSS), Meeting of the CC CPSU Presidium, Protocol No. 328 (February 16, 1961), Information from comrade Khrushchev of the meeting on agriculture in the regions of Ukraine, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus and Central Black Earth area, in Aleksandr Fursenko et al., eds., Archivii Kremlya: Prezidium TsK KPSS, 1954–1964 Chernoviie protokolnie zapisi zasedanii. Stenogrammi. Postanovlenia, vol. 1 [Archives of the Kremlin: Presidium of the Central Committee of th
e Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1954–1964, Notes of State Meetings, Stenographic Accounts], Moscow: Rosspen, 2004.

  At one local Communist Party: Stenographic account, March 25, 1961, TsK KPSS, Meeting of the CC CPSU Presidium, Protocol No. 321 (March 25, 1961), TsK KPSS; Fursenko and Naftali, Khrushchev’s Cold War, 344–345.

  The Soviet public’s awareness: Harrison E. Salisbury, A New Russia. New York: Harper & Row, 1962, 120–121.

  Speaking calmly and wearily: FRUS, 1969–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1969–1962, Doc. 8.

  The American ambassador warned: FRUS, 1969–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1969–1962, Doc. 8.

  Because Berlin lacked political: FRUS, 1969–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1969–1962, Doc. 8.

  To further illustrate West Berlin’s: FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 44.

  He said the U.S.: FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 43.

  Instead of embracing: FRUS, 1969–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1969–1962, Doc. 8; FRUS, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 43.

  Khrushchev complained: FRUS, 1969–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1969–1962, Doc. 8.

  Thompson returned by plane: New York Times, 03/10/1961.

  “All my diplomatic colleagues”: FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 46; vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, Doc. 11.

  A week later, Thompson: FRUS, 1969–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1969–1962, Doc. 11.

  With uncanny clairvoyance, Thompson: Telegram from U.S. Embassy (Moscow) to State Department, March 16, 1961, cited in Catudal, Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis, 62, FN 15, 240–241.

  The best minds: DNSA, Berlin Situation [Summary of Report by U.S. Intelligence Board Berlin Sub-Committee Report], Memorandum, March 7, 1961.

  Acheson’s paper: Department of State, Memo for the President, April 3, 1961, 4 pp; JFKL, Dean G. Acheson OH, no. 1, April 27, 1964.

  With a gaggle: James Chace, Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998, 382.

  Acheson then helped dissuade: Douglas Brinkley, Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years, 1953–1971. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994, 113.