Berlin 1961
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Kellett-Long would later recall: Interview with Adam Kellett-Long, London, October 15–16, 2008.
Kellett-Long returned to his office: Peter Wyden, “Wir machen Berlin dicht—Die Berliner Mauer (III) Der. 13. August,” Der Spiegel, 10/16/1989.
Mielke exuded self-confidence: Henning Köhler, Adenauer: Eine politische Biographie. Frankfurt am Main: Propyläen, 1994, 39.
Back in 1931: Heribert Schwan, Erich Mielke: Der Mann, der die Stasi war. Munich: Droemer Knaur, 1997, 31, 58.
“Today we begin a new chapter”: Eisenfeld, 13.8.1961, 47–49; BStU, MfS, ZA, ZAIG Nr. 4900, Aus dem Protokoll über die Dienstbesprechung im MfS am 11. August 1961, Bl. 3–6.
One neighborhood near Berlin’s: Cate, The Ides of August, 207; interview with Klaus Schulz-Ladegast, Berlin, October 12, 2008.
The Severin + Kuhn company: Cate, The Ides of August, 3, 68–69, 208, 211, 230.
In a raspy, emotional voice: Rede des Regierenden Bürgermeisters von Berlin, Willy Brandt, auf dem Kongress anlässlich des Deutschlandtreffens der SPD (Brandt speech at SPD congress), August 12, 1961, in Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ed., Tatsachen—Argumente, no. 21, 08/21/1961, 4–11; chronik-der-mauer.de; Chicago Daily Tribune, 08/13/1961.
While Brandt was in Nuremberg: Rede von Bundeskanzler Dr. Konrad Adenauer auf einer CDU-Wahlkampfkundgebung in Lübeck (Adenauer speech at Lübeck CDU election campaign rally), August 12, 1961, Stiftung Bundeskanzler Adenauer-Haus, www.chronik-der-mauer.de.
Walter Ulbricht appeared: Frederick Taylor, The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1969–1989. New York: HarperCollins, 2007, 159; Grimm, Politbüro Privat, 161; Klaus Wiegrefe, “Die Schandmauer,” Der Spiegel, 08/06/2001, 64–65.
His guests speculated: Wiegrefe, “Die Schandmauer.”
Only a handful of Ulbricht’s: Erich Honecker, From My Life. New York: Pergamon, 1981, 121; Hilton, The Wall, 31, 34–35.
Apparently unaware: Los Angeles Times, 08/13/1961.
Khrushchev had given a speech: DNSA, Analysis of Khruschev’s Speech at a Soviet–Romanian Friendship Rally on August 11, Confidential Cable, August 12, 1961.
Secretary of State Rusk had sent: FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, Doc. 103, Telegram from the Department of State to the Embassy in Germany, August 12, 1961, 6:26 p.m.
Hoffmann briefed officers: Cate, The Ides of August, 229–224; Wyden, Wall, 137–138; Lt. Col. Martin Herbert Löffler’s description, made in Bonn on September 21, 1961, Berliner Morgenpost, 09/22/1962; Foreign Broadcast Information Service, DPA Dispatch (English version), September 24, 1962; Washington Post, 09/22/1962; New York Times, 09/22/1962; Rheinische Merkur, Christ + Welt, 09/28/1962; Wiegrefe, “Die Schandmauer.”
By 10.00 p.m., Honecker: Honecker, From My Life, 211.
The little information: Norbert F. Pötzl, Erich Honecker: Eine Deutsche Biographie. Stuttgart and Munich: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2nd ed., 2002, 71; Die Welt, 06/08/2001; Armee für Frieden und Sozialismus, Geschichte der Nationalen Volksarmee. Berlin: Militärverlag der DDR, 1985, 244, 246.
In all, some 8,200 People’s Police: Pötzl, Erich Honecker, 72.
Ulbricht looked at his watch: Honecker, From My Life, 210; Pötzl, Erich Honecker, 72.
No one protested: Kvitsinsky, Vor dem Sturm; Berliner Zeitung, 03/22/1993.
Kellett-Long was worried: Wyden, Wall—The Inside Story of Divided Berlin, 140–141; Kellett-Long interview.
Three long, penetrating wails: Michael Mara, Rudi Thurow, Eckhardt Schaller, and Rainer Hildebrandt, eds., Kontrollpunkt Kohlhasenbrück—Die Geschichte einer Grenzkompanie des Ringes um West-Berlin. Bad Godesberg, Germany: Hohwacht-Verlag, 1964; Gelb, The Berlin Wall, 151–153.
Witz, who said: Gelb, The Berlin Wall, 153.
Shortly before 1:00 a.m.: Interview with Adam Kellett-Long, London, October 15–16, 2008.
In response, Warsaw Pact: Statement by Warsaw Treaty Member, August 13, 1961, in Pravda, August 15, 1961; for extract, see Harry Hanak, Soviet Foreign Policy Since the Death of Stalin. Boston: Routledge, 1972, 113.
“Earlier today, I became”: Adam Kellett-Long, “Demonstrators Defy Armed Policemen: Tense Atmosphere in East Berlin,” Manchester Guardian, 08/14/1961; http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1961/aug/14/berlinwall.germany.
The trucks belched out: Cate, The Ides of August, 248–249.
Senior officials of the U.S., British: Gelb, The Berlin Wall, 158–159, 162–163.
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.
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.
Colonel Johns had never seen: New York Times, 08/21/1961.
The Soviet response: “Berlin Is Called a G.I. ‘Mousetrap,’” New York Times, 08/26/1961.
“We took offense”: Interview with Vern Pike, Washington, D.C., November 17, 2008.
At 5:30 on Sunday: Interview with Lucian Heichler, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, initial interview date February 2, 2000, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mfdip:@field(DOCID+mfdip2004hei01); interview with James. E. Hoofnagle, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, initial interview date March 3, 1989, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mfdip:@field(DOCID+mfdip2004hoo01).
“I returned from Germany”: Report by Vice President Johnson, Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, Vice Presidential Security Files, VP Travel, Berlin, Secret. The vice president also reported on his trip to Kennedy on August 21. The memo for the record of this meeting is in JFKL, NSF, Germany, Berlin.
On August 22, Ulbricht: Fursenko and Naftali, Khrushchev’s Cold War, 385, quoting MFA, Gromyko and Malinovsky to the Central Committee, July 7, 1962 (recounting 1961 events), 0742, 7/28/54, 10–13.
Swelling with confidence: Fursenko and Naftali, Khrushchev’s Cold War, 385, citing Ulbricht letter to Khrushchev, October 31, 1961, AVP-RF.
Chancellor Adenauer finally surfaced: “Kanzler Besuch: Keen Willydrin,” Der Spiegel, 08/3
0/1961.
Many West Berliners: “Foes Taunt Adenauer in Berlin,” Washington Post, 08/23/1961; Die Zeit, 03/25/1961.
Adenauer visited the king: Schwarz, Konrad Adenauer. Vol. 2: The Statesman, 1952–1967, 542; Cable, Adenauer an Springer, 16.08.1961; Adenauer, Teegespräche 1959–1961, 546.
West Berlin police officer: Doris Liebermann, “‘Die Gewalt der anderen Seite hat mich sehr getroffen’: Gespräch mit Hans-Joachim Lazai,” in Deutschland Archiv No. 39/2006, 596–607; “Wall Victim” Ida Siekmann: http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Start/Detail/id/593816/page/1.
It was nearly eight: “Wall Victim” Bernd Lünser: http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Start/Detail/id/593816/page/5.
“Jörg Hildebrandt (Hg.), Regine Hildebrandt. Erinnern tut gut. Ein Familienalbum, Berlin 2008, S. 56.
Eberhard Bolle was so focused: Interview with Eberhard Bolle, Berlin, October 10, 2008.
16. A HERO’S HOMECOMING
“We have lost Czechoslovakia”: Teleconference, Clay and Department of the Army, April 10, 1948; communication recounted in Lucius D. Clay, Decision in Germany, reprint, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1970, 359–362 (361).
“Why would anyone write”: JFKL, Elie Abel OH, March 18, 1970, 3–4; Elie Abel, “Kennedy After 8 Months Is Tempered by Adversity,” Detroit News, September 23, 1961.
Berliners still spoke: Andrei Cherny, The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America’s Finest Hour. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2008, 253.
Clay’s determination to keep: Teleconference, Clay and Department of the Army, April 10, 1948; communication recounted in Lucius D. Clay, Decision in Germany. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1970, 361.
Clay’s appointment: Smyser, Kennedy and the Berlin Wall, 115.
Kennedy had even rewritten: Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay: An American Life. New York: Henry Holt, 1990, 651–652.
Whatever his dilemmas: “Public Backs Kennedy Despite ‘Bad Breaks,’” Washington Post, 08/25/1961.
Unlike Kennedy, Clay spoke: RIAS, General Clay’s statement upon arrival in West Berlin, September 19, 1961: http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Media/VideoPopup/field/audio_video/id/40514/oldAction/Index/oldId/955454/oldModule/Start/page/0.