Berlin 1961 (86 page)

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
, 08/30/1961.

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.

The Christian Democrats:
Prittie,
Konrad Adenauer
, 288–291.

Clay’s limited job description:
Smith,
Lucius D. Clay
, 654.

The State Department’s Martin Hillenbrand:
Gelb,
The Berlin Wall
, 246.

Clay had launched:
http://www.uniprotokolle.de/Lexikon/Berliner_Luftbrücke.html.

The East German newspaper: Washington Post
, 09/18/1961; Taylor,
The Berlin Wall: A World Divided
, 263–265.

At age twenty-one:
Interview with Albrecht Peter Roos, Berlin, October 13, 2008.

As a result of August 13:
Honoré M. Catudal,
Steinstücken: A Study in Cold War Politics.
New York: Vantage Press, 1971, 15.

East German authorities threatened: New York Times
, 09/22/1961; 09/23/1961;
Washington Post
, 09/22/1961; 09/23/1961; Catudal,
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis
, 139–135; Smyser,
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall
, 131.

Without divulging his plans:
Catudal,
Steinstücken
, 15–16, 106.

General Clay spent:
Smith,
Defense of Berlin
, 309–310; Interview with Vern Pike, Washington, D.C., November 17, 2008.

By coincidence, European Commander:
Catudal,
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis
, 133–134.

A few days later, U.S. troops:
Interview with Vern Pike, Washington, D.C., November 17, 2008.

They included the president’s brother:
Frank Saunders,
Torn Lace Curtain.
New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1982, 82–85.

Larry Newman:
Hersh,
Dark Side of Camelot
, 226–230, 237–246.

Kennedy’s public approval ratings:
JFKL,
Elie Abel OH
, March 18, 1970, 3–4;
Detroit News
, September 23, 1961.

On Sunday, Kennedy landed:
Beschloss,
The Crisis Years
, 312–313; Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy and His Times
, 500–501.

Following Salinger’s instructions:
Pierre Salinger,
With Kennedy
. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966, 191–192.

Khrushchev had told Sulzberger:
Department of State,
Presidential Correspondence
, Lot 77 D 163. Also printed in Cyrus L. Sulzberger,
The Last of the Giants
. New York: Macmillan, 1970, 801–802.

Taking a deep breath:
Sulzberger,
The Last of the Giants
, 788–806; C. L. Sulzberger, “Khrushchev Says in Interview He Is Ready to Meet Kennedy,”
New York Times
, 09/08/1961.

Khrushchev also wanted to influence:
Salinger,
With Kennedy
, 192; Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 390, 397.

Kennedy called Salinger at 1:00 a.m.:
Beschloss,
Crisis Years
, 314–315; Salinger.
With Kennedy
, 192–194.

Though Kennedy and Khrushchev had agreed:
Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 395.

Kennedy reviewed his UN speech: Christian Science Monitor
, 09/26/1961.

The president had been agonizing:
Smith,
The Defense of Berlin
, 314;
New York Times
, 09/26/1961, 09/29/1961;
Christian Science Monitor
, 10/09/1961;
Washington Post
, 10/11/1961.

Kennedy needed to retake:
Ralph G. Martin,
A Hero of Our Time: An Intimate Story of the Kennedy Years
. New York: Macmillan, 1983, 661; Sidey,
JFK
, 245.

“A nuclear disaster”:
“Text of Kennedy Speech to U.N. Assembly,”
Wall Street Journal
, 09/26/1961; “Kennedy Meets Presidential Test, Shows Nobility of Thought, Concilliatory Mood,”
Washington Post
, 09/26/1961. For text of speech: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/003POF03UnitedNations09251961.htm.

Perhaps most telling was East German:
Smith,
The Defense of Berlin
, 314;
Neues Deutschland
, 09/26/1961.

West German editorialists: Bild-Zeitung
, 09/26/1961.

West German Foreign Minister:
Smith,
The Defense of Berlin
, 314.

Adenauer’s fears:
AVP-RF, Memcon,
Kuznetsov
, Meeting with Kroll, 3-64-746, August 29, 1961; Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 389.

In the
Berliner Morgenpost:
Berliner Morgenpost
, 09/26/1961.

The
New York Times
columnist:
Smith,
The Defense of Berlin
, 313.

So Marshal Konev dispatched:
Smith,
The Defense of Berlin
, 315.

On September 27, General Clarke:
Smith,
The Defense of Berlin
, 315.

Clay had ordered army:
Raymond L. Garthoff, “Berlin 1961: The Record Corrected,”

Foreign Policy
, no. 84 (Fall 1991), 142–156; Freedman,
Kennedy’s Wars
, 90; Donald P. Steury, “On the Front Lines of the Cold War: The Intelligence War in Berlin,” presented at “Berlin: The Intelligence War, 1945–1961.” Conference at the Teufelsberg and the Alliierten Museum, September 10–12, 1999; excerpts from conference speeches and panel discussions: Ambassador Raymond Garthoff on the tank confrontation of October 1961; retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/summer00/art01.html.

17.
NUCLEAR POKER

“In a certain sense”:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. VI, Kennedy–Khrushchev Exchanges, Doc. 21, Letter from Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy, Moscow, September 29, 1961; Department of State, Presidential Correspondence: Lot 77 D 163; also JFKL, NSF, Countries Series, USSR,
Khrushchev Correspondence
.

“Our confidence in”:
Address by Roswell L. Gilpatric, Deputy Secretary of Defense, before the Business Council at the Homestead, Hot Springs, Virginia, October 21, 1961, 9:00 p.m. (EST), 10:00 p.m. (EDT): http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB56/BerlinC6.pdf; “Our Real Strength,”
Time
, 10/27/1961.

Carrying two folded newspapers:
Salinger,
With Kennedy
, 198–199.

The man who:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. VI,
Kennedy–Khrushchev Exchanges
, Doc. 21, Letter from Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy, September 29, 1961.

Salinger was struck:
Salinger,
With Kennedy
, 199.

Khrushchev also said he was willing:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, Doc. 137.

Apart from opening his new channel:
Fursenko and Naftali,
Khrushchev’s Cold War
, 396.

Khrushchev had also warned Ulbricht:
SED Archives, IfGA, ZPA, J IV 2/202/130, Letter from Khrushchev to Ulbricht, January 28, 1961, in Harrison, “Ulbricht and the Concrete ‘Rose,’” CWIHP Working Paper No. 5, 131, Appendix J.

Adenauer’s concerns:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, Doc. 147, Memo from President Kennedy to Secretary of State Rusk, Berlin Negotiations, Washington, September 12, 1961.

One matter was certain:
Quoted in James N. Giglio,
The Presidency of John F. Kennedy
. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006, 2nd ed., 82; O’Brien,
JFK
, 552; Sidey,
JFK
, 218.

Kennedy considered reaching out:
Sorensen,
Kennedy
, 553.

In a letter dated October 16:
FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. VI,
Kennedy–Khrushchev Exchanges
, Doc. 22, Letter from President Kennedy to Chairman Khrushchev, Hyannis Port, October 16, 1961; Thomas Fensch, ed.,
Top Secret
:
The Kennedy–Khrushchev Letters
. The Woodlands, TX: New Century Books, 2001, 69–81.