Berlin 1961 (76 page)

Ulbricht had created a new National Defense Council:
Armin Wagner,
Walter Ulbricht und die geheime Sicherheitspolitik der SED: Der Nationale Verteidigungsrat der DDR und seine Vorgeschichte (1953–1971).
Berlin: Christoph Links, 2002, 189; Matthias Uhl and Armin Wagner, “Another Brick in the Wall: Reexamining Soviet and East German Policy During the 1961 Berlin Crisis: New Evidence, New Documents,” CWIHP Working Paper, published under “Storming On to Paris: The 1961 ‘Buria’ Exercise and the Planned Solution of the Berlin Crisis,” in Vojtech Mastny, Sven G. Holtsmark, and Andreas Wenger, eds.,
War Plans and Alliances in the Cold War: Threat Perceptions in the East and West
. New York: Routledge, 2006, 46–71; Harrison,
Driving the Soviets up the Wall
, 149.

In his most recent letter:
Stiftung Archive der Parteien und Massenorganisationen im Bundesarchiv (SAPMO-BArch), Letter from Ulbricht and the SED delegation in Moscow to the First Secretary of the CC of the CPSU, Comrade Khrushchev, Moscow, November 22, 1960, ZPA, DY, 30/J IV 2/202/336, Bd. 2, 1;11.

Khrushchev assured a skeptical Ulbricht:
Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 340–341.

Though Ulbricht remained distrustful:
Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 341; Letter from Ulbricht to Khrushchev, September 15 1961. SED Archives, IfGA, ZPA, Central Committee files, Walter Ulbricht’s office, Internal Party Archive, J IV 2/202/130, in Harrison, “Ulbricht and the Concrete ‘Rose,’” CWIHP Working Paper No. 5, 126–130, Appendices; Letter from Ulbricht and the SED CC delegation to the CPSU 22nd Congress in Moscow to Khrushchev, October 30, 1961, SED Archives, IfGA, ZPA, NL 182/1206, in Harrison, “Ulbricht and the Concrete ‘Rose,’” 132–139.

“The situation in Berlin”:
Harrison,
Driving the Soviets up the Wall
, 151.

“We still have not taken”:
AVP-RF, Record of Meeting of Comrade N. S. Khrushchev with Comrade W. Ulbricht, November 30, 1960, Fond 0742, Opis 6, Por 4, Papka 43, Secret, in Harrison, “Ulbricht and the Concrete ‘Rose,’” CWIHP Working Paper No. 5, 69, Appendices.

“Luckily, our adversaries”:
AVP-RF, Record of Meeting of Comrade N. S. Khrushchev with Comrade W. Ulbricht, 30 November 1960, Fond 0742, Opis 6, Por 4, Papka 43, Secret, in Harrison, “Ulbricht and the Concrete ‘Rose,’” CWIHP Working Paper No. 5, 73.

3.
KENNEDY: A PRESIDENT’S EDUCATION

“We can live with the status quo”:
Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 342; quotation retrieved from David G. Coleman, “‘The Greatest Issue of All’: Berlin, American National Security, and the Cold War, 1948–1963,” unpublished dissertation (University of Queensland, 2000), 236–237.

“So let us begin anew”:
The National Archives,
Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives
. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, 222.

Eisenhower worried about Kennedy’s:
Robert Dallek,
An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963.
Boston: Little, Brown, 2003, 302; DDEL,
Earl Mazo OH
(Columbia Oral History Project); Herbert S. Parmet,
JFK—The Presidency of John F. Kennedy
. New York: The Dial Press, 1983, 72; Geoffrey Perret,
Eisenhower
. New York: Random House, 1 999, 597.

Eisenhower doubted young Kennedy:
Michael O’Brien,
John F. Kennedy: A Biography
. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005, 175–176, 189–190; John Hersey, “Reporter at Large: Survival,”
New Yorker
, June 17, 1944.

On the cold, overcast morning: Washington Post
, 01/19/1961;
New York Times
, 01/19/1961.

Ahead of the meeting:
JFKL, President’s Office Files (POF), Memo of Subjects for Discussion at Meeting of President Eisenhower and Senator Kennedy on Thursday, January 19, 1961, Box 29a.

Eisenhower told Democratic political operative:
Dallek,
An Unfinished Life
, 303;
New York Times
, 12/07/1960; JFKL,
Robert F. Kennedy OH
; JFKL,
Clark Clifford OH
; O’Brien,
JFK
, 501.

Kennedy had been less taken with:
JFKL,
Robert F. Kennedy OH
; JFKL,
Charles Spalding OH
; Dallek,
An Unfinished Life
, 302.

In contrasting Eisenhower with Kennedy:
JFKL,
Hervé Alphand OH
.

Kennedy was perplexed:
JFKL,
Robert F. Kennedy OH
; Arthur M. Schlesinger,
A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965, 118–119; Gary A. Donaldson.
The First Modern Campaign: Kennedy, Nixon, and the Election of 1960
. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, 150; O’Brien,
JFK
, 499; Geoffrey Perret,
Jack: A Life Like No Other
. New York: Random House, 2002, 271–272; JFKL,
John Sharon OH
.

And his coattails: New York Times
, 11/10/1960; Schlesinger,
A Thousand Days
, 125; Perret,
Jack: A life like no other
, 272; Benjamin C. Bradlee,
Conversations with Kennedy
. New York: W. W. Norton, 1975, 33–34; JFKL,
Clark Clifford OH
.

During his transition briefings:
Lawrence Freedman,
Kennedy’s Wars—Berlin, Cuba, Laos and Vietnam.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, 61; O’Brien,
JFK
, 550, 624, 644, 664.

Instead, the two teams:
O’Brien,
JFK
, 509–513, 644.

“Current Soviet tactics”:
DDEL,
Dwight D. Eisenhower Papers as President of the United States
,
Presidential Transition Series
, Box 1, Topics suggested by Mr. Kennedy.

Martin Hillenbrand, the director:
JFKL,
Martin Hillenbrand OH
.

“We can live with the status quo”:
Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 342; quote retrieved from David G. Coleman, “‘The Greatest Issue of All’: Berlin, American National Security, and the Cold War, 1948–1963,” unpublished dissertation (University of Queensland, 2000), 236–237.

In February 1959, Kennedy: New York Times
, 02/23/1959.

“Our position in Europe”: Washington Post
, 08/02/1959.

In an article published by: New York Times
, 06/15/1960.

The president had only 5,000 troops:
Kowalczuk and Wolle,
Roter Stern über Deutschland
, 97; Alan John Day, ed.
Border and Territorial Disputes
. Detroit: Gale Research, 1982, 42.

The CIA document warned Kennedy:
CIA,
National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) 11-4-60 Main Trends in Soviet Capabilities and Policies
, 1960–1965; reproduced in Loch K. Johnson,
Strategic Intelligence
, vol. 1. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007, Appendix E, 257–263 (263).

So, with Berlin on hold:
O’Brien,
JFK
, 355, 512, 613–614, 624.

Eisenhower portrayed Laos as:
O’Brien,
JFK
, 512–513; Mark K. Updegrove,
Second Acts: Presidential Lives and Legacies after the White House
. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2006, 29.

Kennedy was struck by Eisenhower’s:
JFKL, POF, JFK Memo, Special Correspondence, Greenstein and Immerman, January 19, 1961, Box 29a, 573, 577; POF, Clark Clifford to JFK, Special correspondence, January 24, 1961, Box 29a; Robert S. McNamara,
In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam
. New York: Vintage Books, 1996, 35–36;
Time
, 01/27/1961, 10; Perret,
Eisenhower
, 599–600; DDEL, Memcon, January 19, 1961; Harry S. Truman Library. Memo, Clark Clifford to LBJ, November 29, 1967; DDEL,
Major General Wilton B. Persons OH
(Columbia Oral History Project); Dallek,
An Unfinished Life
, 302–305; Hugh Sidey,
John F. Kennedy, President.
New York: Atheneum, 1964, 37; Parmet,
JFK
, 80.

Eisenhower made no reference to:
Freedman,
Kennedy’s Wars
, 47–48; Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 258.

“You have an invaluable asset”:
Perret,
Jack: A Life Like No Other
, 278.

Eisenhower picked up a special phone:
Perret,
Jack: A Life Like No Other
, 278. “Kennedy Given Example of Fast Helicopter Service,”
Washington Post,
01/20/1961;
Times Herald
, “The Unusual and the Routine Fill Eisenhower’s Final Day at the White House,”
New York Times,
01/20/1961.

Two-thirds of the sold-out crowd: Christian Science Monitor
, 01/21/1961.

The skies opened:
Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 48; Charles C. Kenney,
John F. Kennedy: The Presidential Portfolio: History as told through the collection of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum
. New York: Public Affairs, 2000; Richard M. Nixon,
RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
. New York: Warner Books, 1979, 23; Theodore C. Sorensen,
Kennedy
. New York: HarperCollins, 1965, 240–242.

Dean Acheson, who had been President Truman’s:
Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 19.

On December 1, 1960, Kennedy:
Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali,
One Hell of a Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958–1964
. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997, 81–82; JFKL, RFK Pre-Administration Political Files,
1960 telephone log
, Box 54; Harrison,
Driving the Soviets up the Wall
, 166–167; Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 349–351.

Less encouraging to Khrushchev:
Fursenko and Naftali,
One Hell of a Gamble
, 81–82, quoting Archive of the Foreign Intelligence Service. Shelepin to N. S. Khrushchev, December 3, 1960.

A few days later, on December 12:
Sidey,
JFK
, 39; Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 32.

The ambassador, whom U.S. officials:
Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 32; Adlai E. Stevenson Papers, Stevenson memo: Tucker conversation, January 16, 1960.

Menshikov argued to Bobby:
JFKL, Memo, Robert F. Kennedy to Rusk, Robert F. Kennedy Papers, December 12, 1960.

Two days after meeting with:
Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 42; JFKL, Harriman Memcon, Harriman Papers, November 21 and December 14, 1960.

“I think it’s important to find out”:
Martin,
Adlai Stevenson
, 571.

Beyond that, West German Chancellor: Baltimore Sun
, 10/20/1960.

After much eating and drinking:
David K. E. Bruce diary entry, January 5, 1961, Department of State, Bruce Diaries, Lot 64, D 327, Secret; FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 10.

Just nine days before his inauguration:
George F. Kennan and T. Christopher Jespersen, eds.,
Interviews with George F. Kennan
. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002, 56–57.

Yet Kennan now opposed:
JFKL,
George Kennan OH
.

During the campaign, Kennan told Kennedy:
David Mayers,
George Kennan and the Dilemmas of US Foreign Policy
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988, 208.

Asked by Kennedy why Khrushchev was so eager:
Kennan and Jespersen,
Interviews with Kennan
, 59.

A first version read:
Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 242.

Just as important as his words:
Dallek,
An Unfinished Life
, 176, 317, 322, 342; Lincoln Papers,
Evelyn Lincoln Diary
, January 2, 4, 11, 16, 20, 1961; JFKL,
Janet Travell OH
.

It quoted his physicians: New York Times
, 01/17/1961.

The article listed adult health issues: New York Times
, 01/21/1961.

David Murphy:
David E. Murphy, Sergei A. Kondrashev, and George Bailey,
Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997, 343–349, 359; Cable, Berlin, January 4, 1961, in Dispatch, Berlin, February 15, 1961, CIA-HRP (Historical Review Program); “Goleniewski’s Work with the Soviets,” Memo, January 4, 1964, CIA-HRP.

Murphy had warned the CIA:
David C. Martin,
Wilderness of Mirrors: Intrigue, Deception, and the Secrets That Destroyed Two of the Cold War’s Most Important Agents
. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2003, 97–98.