Zusammenfassung der Ressource
The Berlin Crisis 1961
(Berlin Wall)
- To solve the refugee crisis which was damaging the economy and the
USSRs public reputation Khruchshev decided to build a wall separating
the east and west of Berlin, this being The Berlin Wall
- Secret work started on the night of 12and the 13
of August 1961 and within a few months the
fence became a heavily guarded 50km wall
- The USA protested the wall but did nothing to stop it, it had not
violated the west of Berlin and Kennedy did not want to risk a
devastating war
- The Berlin wall did stop the refugee crisis
- Khruchshev was relived that the wall stopped
people leaving with only 5000 escaping in the
years after it was made
- Khruchshev also look strong in the eyes of other communist leaders
- The USA could use the wall as a piece of propaganda against the soviet bloc
- JFK visited in 1963 and made a point of touring the wall and condemning it in his famous speech
- It was a important symbol of the iron curtain
for the rest of the cold war
- It made west Berlin seem secure now that the wall separated
them and there were no more stand off due to Berlin