Berlin 1961 (77 page)

The CIA also needed:
Martin,
Wilderness of Mirrors
, 91.

4.
KENNEDY: A FIRST MISTAKE

“The United States Government”:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 12.

“Each day, the crises”:
Brian R. Dirck,
The Executive Branch of Federal Government: People, Process, and Politics
. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007, 457–459 (457).

Nikita Khrushchev summoned the U.S. ambassador:
Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 54–55; JFKL, Thompson to Rusk, January 21 and January 24, 1961.

Khrushchev then nodded:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 9–10, Telegram from the Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Department of State, Moscow, January 21, 1961, 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Khrushchev had carefully calculated:
Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 149; Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 290, 338; David Knight,
The Spy Who Never Was and Other True Spy Stories.
New York: Doubleday, 1978.

Back in November:
JFKL, National Security Files NSF, Harriman to JFK, November 12 and November 15, 1960, Box 176; also see FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 10–11.

The aide-mémoire said:
JFKL, POF, Telegram, Thompson to JFK, January 21, 1961, Box 125a.

When Khrushchev’s offer to release:
JFKL, Rusk to Thompson, January 23, 1961; Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 55, 56; Philip A. Goduti Jr.,
Kennedy’s Kitchen Cabinet and the Pursuit of Peace: The Shaping of American Foreign Policy, 1961–1963
. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009, 20–21.

Secretary of State Dean Rusk:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 11, Telegram from the Department of State to the Embassy in the Soviet Union, January 23, 1961, 5:57 p.m.

In the meantime, Khrushchev:
Zubok and Pleshakov,
Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War
.

Eager to be useful to Kennedy:
JFKL, POF, Telegram, Thompson to JFK, January 19, 1961, Box 125a.

The president had initially responded:
Taubman,
Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
, 487; JFKL, Memo, Bundy to JFK, February 27, 1961.

Kennedy radiated calm self-satisfaction:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 12.

But among friends and advisers:
JFKL, JFK to Bundy, February 6, 1961; JFKL, McNamara to Bundy, February 23, 1961, Box 328 NSF/NSWTB; Schlesinger,
A Thousand Days
, 303–306, 344, 346–347. Richard Reeves,
President Kennedy: Profile of Power
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993, 40–41.

“You’ve got to understand”:
JFKL,
Robert F. Kennedy OH
; Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 61; Ralph G. Martin,
A Hero of Our Time: An Intimate Story of the Kennedy Years
. New York: Macmillan, 1983, 351;
Saturday Evening Post
, 03/31/1962.

The text:
For text of Khrushchev’s January 6 speech, see
Pravda
, January 24, 1961; extracts printed also in
American Foreign Policy, Current Documents
, 1961, 555–558; CIA,
Current Intelligence Weekly Review
, January 26, 1961, Job 79-S01060A; FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 15.

The text spoke of Kremlin support:
JFKL, NSF, Box 176; “Khrushchev Report on Moscow Conference of Representatives of Communist and Working Parties,” Papers of President Kennedy: NSF, Countries, Box 189.

With its timing just ahead of:
JFKL and DDEL, Thompson–Herter, January 19, 1961; Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 61.

Then Secretary of State Christian A. Herter had told:
Digital National Security Archive (DNSA). Memo for the President, Christian A. Herter, December 9, 1960, Subject: Analysis of the Moscow Statement of Communist Parties.

He began by listing:
JFKL, John F. Kennedy, January 30, 1961.

Four days after that, McNamara:
Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 65–66. Andrew Bacevich, “Field Marshal McNamara,”
The National Interest
online, May 1, 2007.

On February 11, Khrushchev returned:
Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 78–79; Alexander Rabinowitch, ed.,
Revolution and Politics in Russia: Essays in Memory of B. I. Nicolaevsky
. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972, 281–292.

Twelve days after his State of the Union:
JFKL, NSF, N. S. Khrushchev speech, Thompson telegrams, Buildup to 02/11/1961 meeting, and Preparation for Thompson trip to Moscow, Box 176.

The long-awaited meeting:
Sidey,
JFK
, 164; Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 164, 542; JFKL, NSF,
Notes on Discussion
, February 11, 1961, Countries Series, USSR, Top Secret, “
The Thinking of the Soviet Leadership,”
Cabinet Room; Bundy drafted.

At age fifty-six, Thompson:
David Mayers, “After Stalin: The Ambassadors and America’s Soviet Policy, 1953–1962,”
Diplomacy and Statecraft
, 5, no. 2 (July 1994), 213–247; David Mayers,
The Ambassadors and America’s Soviet Policy
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, 201.

He agreed with Khrushchev’s view:
Taubman,
Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
, 399.

“We have refused these overtures”:
DNSA, Relationship of Berlin Problem to Future of Germany and Overall Relations with Soviet Union, Secret, Cable, 1773, March 9, 1959.

“He is the most pragmatic”:
JFKL, Memcon, February 11, 1961; JFKL, Kennan, Bohlen, Thompson OHs; JFKL, Thompson–DFR, February 13, 1961, BOX 176, Documents for Thompson Telegrams; Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 69.

Pointing to Khrushchev’s Kremlin opposition:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 20.

He said the Soviets were “deeply concerned”
: JFKL, Thompson–Rusk, February 4, 1961, also in Declassified Documents, 1977/74B; Marc Trachtenberg,
History and Strategy
. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991, 172.

Thompson said Khrushchev would be influenced:
JFKL, Thompson–Rusk, February 4, 1961, also in Declassified Documents, 1977/74B; Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 175.

Walter Dowling, the U.S. ambassador:
Department of State, Telegram 1218 from Bonn, Central Files, 762.00/2-861, also in Declassified Documents, 1977/74C.

“I am sure we would err”:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 20.

The February 11 meeting:
JFKL,
Charles Bohlen OH
, May 21, 1964; FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 26, Notes on Discussion, drafted by Bundy, “The Thinking of the Soviet Leadership,” Cabinet Room, February 11, 1961; Dallek,
An Unfinished Life
, 342, 546.

The men arrayed before him:
Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 68–70; JFKL, Memcon, February 11, 1961; JFKL,
Kennan, Bohlen, Thompson OHs
; JFKL, Thompson–DFR, February 13, 1961;
New York Times
, 02/10/1961, 02/12/1961, 02/19/1961; Schlesinger,
A Thousand Days
, 303–306; Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 510, 541–542.

Thompson argued that the U.S. “hope for the future”:
JFKL, NSF, Notes on Discussion, February 11, 1961, Countries Series, USSR, Top Secret, “The Thinking of the Soviet Leadership,” Cabinet Room; Bundy drafted; FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 26.

Bohlen opposed Khrushchev’s suggestion:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 26.

As he had told his aide:
Kenneth P. O’Donnell and David F. Powers, with Joe McCarthy,
“Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye”: Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy
. Boston: Little, Brown, 1972, 286.

Beyond that, other countries:
Sidey,
JFK
, 164.

“It is my duty to make decisions”:
Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 542–543.

On February 27, Bundy instructed:
DNSA,
Crisis over Berlin
, February 27, 1961, vol. 7.

But by the time Thompson phoned:
Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 80.

Khrushchev delivered a speech: New York Times
, 03/07/1961.

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.