berlin wall us history definition

berlin wall us history definition

The Significance of the Berlin Wall in U.S. History

1. Introduction to the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 by the East German Government to prevent its citizens from fleeing to the West. How did a wall in a foreign city 3,000 miles away become a symbol of the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union? After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union tried to occupy and control the parts of the world where their troops had pushed the enemy out. The former Allies in the war became the new enemies in a new war. In addition to Germany, these spheres of influence are still the causes of many of the world’s problems in the late Twentieth Century. The Berlin Wall is more closely connected to American history by helping Americans focus on what they approved and disapproved of at the way the Soviets are helping govern their sector, and by providing a physical symbol of the Soviet lack of concern for the rights of the citizens in Berlin. The Wall helped us to plan military strategy in case of an occupation and provided a balance that avoided the Third World War.

The Berlin Wall marked the beginning of a period known as “the Cold War”. This was an era of tension between the United States and the only nation that shared superpower status with it, the Soviet Union. It might be best to think of the Cold War as a competition between the two superpowers with both sides avoiding direct military conflict. This competition involved a race in building up their military strength and influence around the world. Because it did not involve open warfare, the Cold War allowed for time for events to slow, collide, and time for those involved to react and adjust without time compression. In the end, it was one of the contestants’ inability to deal with events that alone ended the stand-off.

2. Political Context: Cold War Tensions

To protect the West, the US initiated the containment policy. This policy earned its name with the eventual intention of containing communist influence abroad within current geographic boundaries. In the early years of the Cold War, it was the foreign policy of the United States to prevent the expansion of the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence at the expense of its European allies. The aim of the US was to maintain stability in the international system. Two ways were offered by the President: the “isolation” of important and powerful countries from the Western world and “contain” its expansion through the Continental Europe support. In order to achieve both, it was necessary to increase the Western European countries’ economic recovery and, at the same time, accelerate the process of US foreign military aid.

At the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, Europe was divided into practically two halves. In the eastern part of Europe, politically and economically dominated by the USSR, societies were organized under the principles of a one-party state laid down by the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. In the western part and in the Federal Republic of Germany, directly influenced by the US, US society values and the capitalist system dedicated themselves to compete with the former Soviet Union and its principles.

3. Construction and Division of Berlin

It has been demonstrated how the construction of such a barrier could stop human beings from using certain fluvial and aerial corridors to traverse borders. Josef Remold, director of the Western Trade Borders Group in Berlin at the time of the first Mayor Willy Brandt administration declared in an official interview that both the Americans and the British announced that if the proposed Berlin bypass, intended to create a first closed corridor through East Berlin to replace the Autobahn, could be physically approached on their areas of control from both the Eastern and Western exits they would intervene and dismantle it. According to a memo of a conversation published in The Daily Telegraph of 14 November 1963, U.S. Ambassador Dowling reported at a meeting with Diplomatic Gold Coast Chiefs of Missions that the U.S. was inclined to undertake to prevent the construction of the Berlin Bypass merely if the East German regime contract was insufficiently breached. However, the Ambassador took care to explain that the Americans preferred not to have that responsibility.

The construction of the Berlin Wall involved cutting off roads and tying up railroad lines coming into West Berlin, accompanied by barbed wire and tank traps. The division of the city was not merely a physical division by demolition and barricades; it was more important as a permanent mental division between Communist-ruled East Berlin and West Berlin. This resulted in the internal division of families and friends, who soon proved unwilling to share the fate of the East German state, so shockingly revealed at the construction of the Wall. East Berliners would come to look over at West Berlin from the windows in their apartment houses and occasionally try to flee to freedom by climbing out of their windows. Such “Romeo and Juliet” escapes occurred during those early days and the response of the communist authorities was to board up the windows after the populace went inside for the night.

4. Impact on U.S.-Soviet Relations

So the realization of how dangerous the situation was in Berlin and how easily it could have gotten out of hand helped Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev to realize also that the risks of a genuine military confrontation over Cuba really were too great. The Berlin Wall convinced both sides, less than a year later, to solve some of their problems and come to an agreement in the realm of nuclear disarmament. This resulted in the signing of the Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963. This treaty banned all atmospheric, space, and underwater testing of nuclear weapons. The politics of Berlin heavily influenced the diplomacy of the time and pushed the two superpowers in the direction of nuclear arms control. For that decade, the Wall helped to keep the peace by suppressing the desire for freedom among the East German population. At its peak, the Wall was the easiest way to keep the status quo.

The Berlin Wall had a major impact on the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. Only a few months before it was erected, President John Kennedy had visited Berlin, and speaking on the eastern side of the Brandenburg Gate, he said, “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner) to show American support for the people of West Berlin. Under pressure to appear “tough” on communism because of the Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba, the President desperately wanted to appear strong and communicate a very powerful message to both the Soviet Union and his own people. Soon after, the United States actually increased its forces in West Berlin, and the world watched anxiously to see if the Soviet Union would respond militarily. The Berlin Wall was then built to keep people from fleeing as fast as workers would leave East Berlin every day when their shifts ended. The United States was not able to prevent the construction of the Wall, but it had taken a strong stand by committing military forces at the time, and supporting the people of Berlin all the way.

5. Fall of the Berlin Wall and its Legacy

The dramatic events in East Berlin and other East German cities in 1989 immediately reverberated throughout the world, as tyrants and autocrats worldwide began to hear the footsteps of democracy and reform approaching. The Berlin Wall no longer stands, but the emblematic divide it represented—an iron curtain between East and West—was shattered by the courageous actions of individuals seeking freedom from repression. The Wall’s fall and its resulting legacy of a reunited and prosperous Germany and a peaceful Europe symbolized the United States’ reliance on the spread of freedom and democracy to bring about a more peaceful, prosperous world. The wreckage of the Wall now stands as a cherished symbol situated at the National World War II Memorial, a reminder of America’s successful campaign to defeat the totalitarian forces and ideals that the Wall came to represent.

By 1987, Gorbachev’s policies had led to revolutions throughout the communist world, as puppet dictatorships were replaced in countries from Poland to Hungary to Romania. The combination of these reforms and the United States’ rock-solid stance against the spread of communist repression during the Cold War began to unravel the very fabric of the Berlin Wall. The most striking moments of those historic days were the scenes of Germans demolishing entire sections of the Wall to reach friends and family on the other side. One of the defining images of the late 20th century, these acts symbolized the triumph of freedom and the resilience of the human spirit over the forces of oppression.