Anastas Mikoyan and the Six-Month Mask of the Berlin Ultimatum
A Soviet emissary attempted to frame a military ultimatum as a mere suggestion, keeping the true stakes of the Berlin crisis hidden behind a "man on holiday" persona.
By Vera Kessler ·
Berlin Crisis
Kennedy’s Berlin Planners Had No Ready Answer on Mobilization
Kept secret for decades, a 1962 record describes a President asking for a mobilization schedule for Berlin only to find his generals had no ready answer.
By Vera Kessler ·
Nixon Leveraged Nuclear Treaty to Secure Berlin Access
Held in the White House Cabinet Room on February 4, 1969, a meeting over Berlin access remained missing from formal minutes until Alexander Haig's handwritten notes surfaced.
By Roy Castellano ·
Kennedy Told Senator Mike Mansfield East Berlin Was Not Worth War
Kept secret as a State Department file, a 1962 letter shows the White House had already abandoned East Berlin to Soviet control months before the world nearly ended.
By Vera Kessler ·
Joint Chiefs Told Kennedy Nuclear Will Was Essential to Save Berlin
Berliners lived under the shadow of a Soviet takeover while the Joint Chiefs fought to convince the White House that only the threat of atomic war could stop Moscow.
By Eleanor Voss ·
Kennedy Masked Berlin Build-Up as Global Danger to Keep Asian Allies
Allies in Thailand and South Vietnam were kept in the dark about the true drivers of US troop movements in a Secret memorandum from July 1961.
By Roy Castellano ·
Dean Rusk Weighed Summoning Khrushchev to a Blockaded Berlin
Kept Top Secret until its release in the Foreign Relations of the United States series, this 1961 memo weighs the psychological cost to Berliners if a high-stakes summit with Nikita Khrushchev failed.
By Vera Kessler ·
Robert McNamara Warned Kennedy Soviet Puppets Could Defeat US Divisions
Kept Top Secret until 1985, the US risked humiliation by a satellite regime in Berlin while planners debated the jump to nuclear war.
By Eleanor Voss ·
State Department Planners Calculated Nuclear War Risks to Hold Berlin
Marked Secret for decades, this summary admits the West had few options to stop Soviet aggression without risking thermonuclear war or abandoning the city.
By Roy Castellano ·
Kennedy feared a 'citizen explosion' in East Berlin
Top Secret orders from 1961 show a president bracing for riots and rebellion on the Berlin border, a scenario kept hidden for decades from the people who would have fought it.
By Roy Castellano ·
Million East Germans Rise as US 7th Army Stands on Alert
Over a million East Germans were curbed by Soviet forces during a brief window when the US 7th Army and NATO headquarters stood on alert to prevent a global catastrophe.
By Roy Castellano ·