Berlin 1961 (84 page)

Acheson had grown:
Catudal,
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis
, 182.

At the second key NSC:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, Doc. 77, Memo of Minutes of the National Security Council Meeting, Washington, July 19, 1961, prepared by Bundy on July 25, 1961.

Ambassador Thompson wasn’t in the room:
Theodore C. Sorensen,
Kennedy
. New York: HarperCollins, 1965, 589.

Kennedy told the NSC:
Catudal,
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis
, 180; Beschloss,
The Crisis Years
, 257.

Just the previous day at lunch:
Cate,
The Ides of August
, 108–111; author interview with James O’Donnell.

“For West Berlin, lying exposed”:
JFKL, Radio and Television Report to the American People on the Berlin Crisis, President Kennedy, The White House, July 25, 1961: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/003POF03BerlinCrisis07251961.htm.

O’Donnell suggested an easy:
Gelb,
The Berlin Wall
, 118.

“There was an ‘Oh, my God!”:
Gelb,
The Berlin Wall
, 118; author’s interview with Karl Mautner.

The emphasis on
West
Berlin:
Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 264;
New York Times
, 08/03/1961;
Der Tagesspiegel
, 08/02/1961;
Neues Deutschland
, 08/02/1961; JFKL, Bundy–JFK, August 4, 1961; Catudal,
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis
, 201–203.

Fulbright’s interpretation of the treaty:
Ann Tusa,
The Last Division: A History of Berlin, 1945–1989
. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1997, 257;
Washington Post
, 07/31/1961;
New York Times
, 08/03/1961.

Early in August, Kennedy:
JFKL,
Walt W. Rostow OH
; Rostow,
Diffusion of Power
, 231; Beschloss,
The Crisis Years
, 265; Schlesinger,
A Thousand Days
, 394; Catudal,
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis
, 201.

On a sweltering Moscow morning:
Harrison,
Driving the Soviets up the Wall
, 192–194; SAPMO-BArch, ZPA, DY, 30/3682; Uhl and Wagner, “Another Brick in the Wall,” CWIHP Working Paper, published under “Storming On to Paris,” in Mastny, Holtsmark, and Wenger,
War Plans and Plliances in the Cold War
, 46–71; Aleksandr Fursenko, “Kak Byla Postroena Berlinskaia Stena,” in
Istoricheskie Zapiski
, no. 4 (2001), 78–79.

The two men had been closely:
Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 377, 379–380.

“When would it be best”:
Fursenko, “Kak Byla Postroena Berlinskaia Stena,” 78.

Noting that the thirteenth:
Nikita S. Khrushchev,
Khrushchev Remembers: The Last Testament
, 506.

“In those homes”:
Fursenko, “Kak Byla Postroena Berlinskaia Stena,” 79.

“When the border is closed”:
RGANI, Khrushchev–Ulbricht, August 1, 1961, Document No. 521557, 113–146. Document and citation graciously provided by Dr. Matthias Uhl.

He even spoke nostalgically:
Taubman,
Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
, 502; Vladislav M. Zubok, “Khrushchev’s Secret Speech on the Berlin Crisis, August 1961,” CWIHP-B, No. 3, Fall 1993, 58–61; Catudal,
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis
, 50. The conference of first secretaries of Central Committee of Communist and Workers Parties of socialist countries for exchange of views on the questions related to preparation and conclusion of German peace treaty, 3–5 August 1961 [Transcripts of the meeting were found in the miscellaneous documents of the International Department of the Central Committee, TsKhSD], 11, 142–144, 156–157.

Wismach left East Berlin:
Bundesministerium für Gesamtdeutsche Fragen, ed.,
Die Flucht aus der Sowjetzone und die Sperrmassnahmen des kommunistischen Regimes vom 13. August 1961 in Berlin
. Bonn/Berlin, 7. September 1961, vol. 2, Doc. No. 95, 81–82; Archiv Deutschlandradio. Sendung: Die Zeit im Funk, Reporter: Hans-Rudolf Vilter,
RIAS-Interview mit dem nach West-Berlin geflüchteten Kurt Wismach, der Walter Ulbricht während seiner Rede im Kabelwerk Oberspree am 10. August 1961 mehrfach unterbrach, 17. August 1961
: http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Start/Index/id/631935/item/34/page/0.

14.
THE WALL: SETTING THE TRAP

“The GDR had to cope”:
Nikita S. Khrushchev,
Khrushchev Remembers
. Boston: Little, Brown, 1970, 454.

“In this period”:
Bernd Eisenfeld and Roger Engelmann,
13.8.1961: Mauerbau—Fluchtbewegung und Machtsicherung
. Bremen: Temmen, 2001, 48; Behörde der Bundesbeauftragten für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der Ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (BStU), MfS, ZA, ZAIG No. 4900, Aus dem Protokoll über die Dienstbesprechung im MfS am 11. August 1961, Bl.3–6.

With only three weeks:
Harrison,
Driving the Soviets up the Wall
, 187–188; Uhl and Wagner, “Another Brick in the Wall,” CWIHP Working Paper, published under “Storming On to Paris,” in Mastny, Holtsmark, and Wenger,
War Plans and Alliances in the Cold War
, 46–71; SAPMO-BArch, ZPA, J IV 2/202–65; Klaus Froh and Rüdiger Wenzke, eds.,
Die Generale und Admirale der NVA: Ein biographisches Handbuch.
Berlin: Christoph Links, 2007, 198; Peter Wyden,
Wall: The Inside Story of Divided Berlin.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989, 88.

Furious activity had filled:
Cate,
The Ides of August
, 222.

Several hundred police:
Wyden,
Wall—The Inside Story of Divided Berlin
, 134, 140.

From the moment that police:
Eisenfeld,
13.8.1961
, 49.

Ulbricht cleared the final language:
William I. Hitchcock,
The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent, 1945–2002
. New York: Doubleday, 2003, 218.

Without emotion, Ulbricht:
Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 380; AVP-RF, Pervukhin to Khrushchev, August 10, 1961, 3-64-745, p. 125; Nikita S. Khrushchev,
Khrushchev Remembers: The Last Testament
, 505.

Khrushchev received the news:
Nikita S. Khrushchev,
Khrushchev Remembers
, 454, 456–457.

At age sixty-three, Konev:
Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 382; Cate,
The Ides of August
, 178–182.

Near World War II’s end:
Antony Beevor,
Berlin: The Downfall, 1945
. New York: Viking, 2002, 16.

Khrushchev had constructed the plan:
Nikita S. Khrushchev,
Khrushchev Remembers
, 458.

At age twenty-six, Adam Kellett-Long:
Christopher Hilton,
The Wall: The People’s Story
. Stroud, England: Sutton, 2001, 25; Cate,
The Ides of August
, 236–238.

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.