Berlin 1961 (96 page)

July 8. Kennedy, aboard the
Marlin
, summons his top advisers to Hyannis Port to discuss the growing crisis. Left to right: JFK, military adviser Maxwell Taylor, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. (
AP Photo
)

Meanwhile, every week the flood of East German refugees to West Berlin rises even higher, making the crisis greater. An overhead shot of the Marienfelde refugee center on the outskirts of Berlin. (
USIS/National Archives
)

A mother watches over her children while they wait for processing at Marienfelde. (
USIS/National Archives
)

One refugee is Marlene Schmidt, who wins the Miss Universe pageant in Miami on July 15, less than a month before the border closes. (
UPI/Library of Congress
)

July 25. A pensive JFK before his first live TV speech to the nation from the Oval Office. (
Cecil Stoughton/JFK Library
)

Giving his secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, last-minute edits for the speech. (
Robert Knudsen/JFK Library
)

August 13. The border closes. East German infantrymen seal off the crossing point at the Brandenburg Gate. (
USIS /National Archives
)

An East German policeman breaks up a West Berlin demonstration with a high-pressure water hose. (
USIS/National Archives
)

Children in East Berlin look across the low barbed wire into West Berlin. (
UPI/Library of Congress
)

August 16. Mayor Willy Brandt rallies his city. A quarter million West Berliners hear him warn that the existence of the entire noncommunist world is at stake. (
AP Photo, above, and USIS/National Archives, below
)

August 18. After resisting the president’s request that he visit West Berlin, Vice President Johnson basks delightedly in the adoring crowd. (
USIS/National Archives
)