S U P I,Il P OWUlovertheUnitedSratcs.rcadvtocarrytheird eadl y
warheadsfarIIUOtheSovietUnion.The Po laris.
anothe r missile.wascarriedbynuclear-powered
submarinescruisingd eepbeneat h the oceans.
B ytheendofthe 1950sth eUnitedStatesandthe
SovietU m on hadenoughn uclearmissilestokill
everyb od y on earth.Itis1I0 t sur p risingth atpeople
spokeofa"balanceofrcrro r. "Bot hRus sianand
Americ an leaderscarnetosecth atin a full-s ca lewar
betweent heirtwocount riest he re couldbe 110
winner ,T h eywouldsimplydestroyoneano th er.
Nik iraKh rushchev.t henunwhotook Sta lin'splace
aslead erofrhe SovietUnion,realizedt his.l ieo nce
saidt hatcapitalistandcommunist countrieswou ld
onlyreallyagree"when s hrim pslearnedtow histle."
Burinaworldofl l - bo rn bshe believedrh a rtheyh ad
to tr y to livepeacefully,sidebyside.Inpla ceo fCold
Warthre a tshesuggested"peace fulcoexist en ce. "
TheBerlinWall
Just afte r mid n ight 011 Sunday, Augu stD , 1')6 1,
trucks ro lled th ro ug h the silen t st reets ofEast
Berl in, A tthe bo rder withWes t Herlinsoldiers
j u m ped out andblocke dth estreetsw ithcoils of
barbed wire .By mornin gth eyhadclosed otTall
buttwelveofth eeightycrossin gpoi nt stoWest
Ber lin. With indayswork menw erereplacin gthe
barbedw in : w it h a lasting barr iero fconcre te. The
Berlin Wallhadbeenbom.
T ounderst andwhyrhcBerlin Wallwas b uilt we
h ave to go back to th e late 1940s. Since its
format ion in 1949Wes t G ermanyhadp rospere d.
B y 1')61 its peoplewereamong th e best-off i n the
w o rl d. East Germansw erelessfortun at e.Their
w ages were lo w er.T heyhad less to buy inth e
sh o ps, lesschance to spea k thei r min ds.Millions
fledtotheWest.TIlt'easiest wayto d o thisw asto
ca tc hat rainfrom East toWest Berl inand not
bothe rto comeback.
By July 1%1, t he nu m be r of Eav rGermans
m ak ingt hes eo nt'-wayt rip shad rise n to 10,000
a w ee k. Many w er e highl y skilled workers -
engineer s. doctors. scientists. East German y's
ru le rs k ne w that thei r co unt ry couldneverp rosper122Presi dentEisenhowerwelcomed K hr u shche v'stalk
ofpeaceful coexistence.H einvitedth e 50Vlt'[lead er
to visit the Uni tedStates.Afterwardst h etwomen
agreedtoholdasummitmeetinginParis toworko m
so lutio nstoso meoftheirdifferences.
The Paris summitneverevens tarted.Astill'lea d ers
w ert'0 11th eirwayt her ein May196 0,aR uss ian
missileshotd o wn anAmerica naircraftove rth e
SovietUnion.The airrr:lft w as aU-2 spyplane,
speciallyd esigned to takephotog rap h s of m ilita ry
tar get sfromtheedgeo f space.Krush chcvangrily
accusedEisen ho w erofplanningfor warwhile
talkin gpeace.H ewentangrilyback totheSevier
U n io n .H eseemedtobefurious. Bu tmaybehewas
rat herpleasedat havingmadet heAmericanslook
likehypocrites. In anycase,thePari ssummi t
m eet in gw asoverbeforeitevenstarted.w ithoutsuchpeople.T heybu ilt the Wall tos to p
anymore fromleaving.Presid en t Kennedy w asnotp rep aredtorisk war
b y demolishingt he BerlinWall. limhe m ad e it
d ear th at th e United Stareswou ld not let the
co mmun iststak eover\Vest Berli n.
Foralmostthin)"yearsBerli n beca metwosepar-
ateciti es.Itwasnotu nt il 1 989 thar itspeopletor e
do w nt he Wallasa firststeptowards re-uniting
their city.