“Tear down this wall!”-Ronald Reagan

• What year did the Berlin Wall come down?

1989

What was the significance of the fall of the Berlin wall?

• Signified the official end of Cold War

• Collapse of the Soviet Union• The beginning of the reunification

of Germany

What happened to Germany at the end of WWII?

What happened to Berlin?

What alliance did the Western Powers form in 1949?• North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (NATO)• What did the US promise

under NATO about Berlin?• To protect them• What did western Europe

and the US fear concerning Berlin?

Jump ahead a few years…

• Who was the leader of the US in 1961?

• John F. Kennedy• Who was the leader of the Soviet

Union in 1961?• Nikita Khrushchev

What were Khrushchev’s Goals for Berlin?• 100,000 East

Germans a year crossed over into West Germany.

• How did this hurt East Germany and the Soviet Union?

What was Kennedy’s position concerning Berlin?

• The US had made a promise with Western Europe under NATO to protect Berlin

• Giving up Berlin meant breaking the NATO alliance and facing the wrath of Western Europe

1961 Summit in Vienna

What was on the agenda?

• Khrushchev wanted Berlin either made a neutral city or given over to the Soviet Union

• Was Khrushchev reasonable in his request?

• Should Kennedy have given Berlin to the Soviet Union?

• What were Kennedy’s philosophies in dealing with the spread of communism?

What was the outcome?

• Kennedy refuses to give Berlin over to the Soviet Union

• Kennedy and Khrushchev get into a debate over Marxist/Leninism

• Who won?• Khrushchev knows more about

Marxist ideals

How did the two part?

• Kennedy said, “I see that it is going to be a cold winter.”

• How did the Soviet Union respond to Kennedy’s refusal to give up West Berlin?

August 1961, Khrushchev builds the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall

• How did the Western nations perceive the Berlin wall?

• They saw it as a sign of Soviet aggression.

• How would you feel if you lived in West Germany and the Soviets were building the wall?

• Was Khrushchev and Eastern Germany justified in building the Berlin wall?

• How effective was the Berlin wall?

• An estimated 10,000 East Germans tried to escape, about 5,000 made it

• Guards patrolled the wall and were commanded to shoot anyone trying to cross the wall

Creative ways of escape

• Hot air balloon• Tunnels dug under the wall• Sailed over the wall using pulleys and a

cable attached to a building on the East and West Sides

• Rivers and sewers• One truck crashed through the wall