Berlin crisis (60s) Flashcards
The U2 incident (1960) and its effects on the Paris Summit Conference.
work on second impact
Events)
- Eisenhower wanted “open skies” agreement
- Khrushchev refused
- days before summit U2 plane caught
- 68,000 feet above Ural mountains shot down
- Gary powers was captured
Impacts)
—Worsening of relations—
-Convinced Khrushchev he couldn’t cooperate with
Eisenhower
-Khrushchev would take part in Summit if apologised to and
no future spy planes
-Eisenhower canceled flights but wouldn’t apologies
- –USA more confrontational—
- Many people felt that the USA had ruined progress in east-west relations and threatened world peace.
- The incident was seen as a defeat for the US. Americans became angry with Eisenhower, who they said was losing the Cold War
- So Eisenhower replaced by Kennedy
Reasons for the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, including the refugee problem.
The ‘brain drain’)
- Berlin emigration loophole
- 2.7 million people had flooded into West Berlin since 1949
- Those leaving were skilled and professional workers
- East needed professionals to rebuild
Problems in East Germany)
- The GDR economy was not doing well
- Shortage of consumer goods that were abundant in East
- strikes and riots in the GDR in June 1953
- Demanded higher pay + better conditions
- 1960 = economic crisis in East = serious food shortages
The effects of the Berlin Wall on relations between East and West Germany and between the Superpowers.
- West Berlin became a powerful symbol of freedom and defiance against communism
- 130 people died in dead zone
- wall showed Kennedy would not be bullied
- “I am a Berliner” kennedy in West
USSR Humiliated
oppression and forced to stay in east under communism.
had to build a wall to keep people in
Stand off
On 27 October 1961, Red Army tanks pulled up to Checkpoint Charlie and refused to allow Americans to pass into the Eastern sector.
- Propaganda failure for USSR
- People locked in and forced to stay
- showed communism would stay in Berlin
- also the flow stopped into West Berlin
-Showed relations weren’t going to be solved
-American tanks on West side
-USSR troops on East side
=standoff
—-sybolised the iron curtain
- But meant there wasn’t going to be war
- Kennedy said wall is better than war
