Throughout the Cold War, Berlin was the epicenter of growing fears and tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. The capital of a once unified Germany was now divided east and west and remained deep behind the borders of East Germany which was firmly under the control of the Soviets as a satellite nation. West Berlin remained the last bastion of freedom in Eastern Europe behind what Winston Churchill referred to in his 1946 speech as the "Iron Curtain". President John F. Kennedy expressed the importance of ensuring the freedom of West Berlin in his nationally televised address on July 25, 1961 (excerpted below) concerning the Berlin Crisis when he called it "the great testing place of Western courage and will". Several months before Kennedy's speech, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev decided to test the resolve of the U.S. and its Western allies by calling for Soviet legislation forcing the turnover of the city to East German control as well as a significant increase in military spending to build up Soviet forces. He did not like having a free "island in a communist sea".
President Kennedy outlined his response to Khrushchev's aggressive actions in a televised address. He asked the U.S. Congress to increase military spending for traditional and nuclear military build up that would be able to respond to any communist threat around the world, including, and most significantly, in West Berlin. In addition, Kennedy called for a peacetime draft and an increase in Civil Defense spending to prepare the nation and its citizens for a possible nuclear attack. President Kennedy said, "The need for this kind of protection is new to our shores. The time is now", as the tensions in Berlin appeared to inch the nations closer to a nuclear war. Any miscalculation on the part of the Soviets or the U.S. could lead to the answer of the question Faulkner asked in 1950, "When will I blow up?". Kennedy closed his address by telling the American people, "We seek peace, but we will not surrender."
Report to the Nation on the Berlin Crisis July 25, 1961
We are [in Berlin] as a result of our victory over Nazi Germany-and our basic rights to be there, deriving from that victory, include both our presence in West Berlin and the enjoyment of access across East Germany. These rights have been repeatedly confined and recognized in special agreements with the Soviet Union. Berlin is not a part of East Germany, but a separate territory under the control of the allied powers. Thus our rights there are clear and deep-rooted. But in addition to those rights is our commitment to sustain-and defend, if need be -the opportunity for more than two million people to determine their own future and choose their own way of life.
Thus, our presence in West Berlin, and our access thereto, cannot be ended by any act of the Soviet government. The NATO shield was long ago extended to cover West Berlin-and we have given our word that an attack upon that city will be regarded as an attack upon us all.
For West Berlin, lying exposed 110 miles inside East Germany, surrounded by Soviet troops and close to Soviet supply lines, has many roles. It is more than a showcase of liberty, a symbol, an island of freedom in a Communist sea. It is even more than a link with the Free World, a beacon of hope behind the Iron Curtain, an escape hatch for refugees.
West Berlin is all of that. But above all it has now become-as never before-the great testing place of Western courage and will, a focal point where our solemn commitments stretching back over the years since 1945, and Soviet ambitions now meet in basic confrontation....
So long as the Communists insist that they are preparing to end by themselves unilaterally our rights in West Berlin and our commitments to its people, we must be prepared to defend those rights and those commitments. We will at all times be ready to talk, if talk will help. But we must also be ready to resist with force, if force is used upon us....
The new preparations that we shall make to defend the peace are part of the long-term build-up in our strength which has been underway since January. They are based on our needs to meet a world-wide threat, on a basis which stretches far beyond the present Berlin crisis.
Our primary purpose is neither propaganda nor provocation-but preparation...
[I]n the days and months ahead, I shall not hesitate to ask the Congress for additional measures, or exercise any of the executive powers that I possess to meet this threat to peace. Everything essential to the security of freedom must be done; and if that should require more men, or more taxes, or more controls, or other new powers, I shall not hesitate to ask them. The measures proposed today will be constantly studied, and altered as necessary. But while we will not let panic shape our policy, neither will we permit timidity to direct our program....
We have another sober responsibility. To recognize the possibilities of nuclear war in the missile age, without our citizens knowing what they should do and where they should go if bombs begin to fall, would be a failure of responsibility. In May, I pledged a new start on Civil Defense. Last week, I assigned, on the recommendation of the Civil Defense Director, basic responsibility for this program to the Secretary of Defense, to make certain it is administered and coordinated with our continental defense efforts at the highest civilian level. Tomorrow, I am requesting of the Congress new funds for the following immediate objectives: to identify and mark space in existing structures-public and private-that could be used for fall-out shelters in case of attack; to stock those shelters with food, water, first-aid kits and other minimum essentials for survival; to increase their capacity; to improve our air-raid warning and fallout detection systems, including a new household warning system which is now under development; and to take other measures that will be effective at an early date to save millions of lives if needed.
1. In his speech, why does President John F. Kennedy say the United States has the right to remain in West Berlin?
2. Why does President Kennedy find West Berlin to be of strategic importance to the United States?
3. What actions and/or preparations does President Kennedy expect the United States and its citizens to take as a result of the growing tensions over the crisis in West Berlin? Why?
Media
Watch Kennedy's Report on the Berlin Crisis:
View the 1961 Civil Defense Film: Survival Under Atomic Attack
References
Engel, J. A., Lawrence, M. A., & Preston, A. (Eds.). (2014). America in the world: A history in documents from the war with Spain to the war on terror. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.