Berlin was the Cold War's preeminent hot spot.
And a major embarrassment for the Soviets.
At the end of World War II, the allies had divided the city as well as
the whole of Germany into four occupation zones
controlled by American, French, British and Russian forces.
Unfortunately, for NATO, Berlin lay 110 miles inside communist East Germany.
Making it difficult to defend.
In 1948 the Soviets had closed off the highways, railroads,
and waterways, leading into the city with the hope of seizing control.
President Harry Truman responded by airlifting 2 million tons of
supplies to west Berlin and putting troops and bombers on standby.
This show of force convinced the Soviets to back down, but they had
never abandoned the dream of seeing
the city united under a communist dictatorship.
The East German people grew to
loathe the Soviet system.
By 1961, thousands of them were pouring across the border
each month in search of jobs and freedom in the west.
Khrushchev was under pressure to stop the
exodus before the communist government there collapsed outright.
He thought the best way might be to sign a peace treaty with East
Germany which, in turn, as a supposedly
independent state, could then expel the western allies
from Berlin and absorb the city. Such an agreement would also keep
Germany from reuniting, which was a primary goal for Russia, having lost
more than 20 million people to German aggression during World War II.
On June 3rd, 1961, Kennedy shook hands with Khrushchev
on the steps of the American embassy in Vienna.
Behind closed doors, however, things quickly
turned ugly.
When Kennedy suggested that the two
leaders work together to maintain the geopolitical
status quo, Khrushchev lectured the young
president on the inevitable triumph of communism.
When Kennedy warned about the dangers of
miscalculation and war, Khrushchev told a story
about a man who kept trying to control his son after he'd already grown up.
One day the son simply refused to
take any more instructions from the aging father.
The parallels were obvious.
Khrushchev threw verbal punches the rest of the afternoon.
He got JFK to admit that the Cuban operation had been a quote, mistake, and
pointed out the hypocrisy of opposing Castro while
supporting right-wing dictators like Francisco Franco in Spain.
The sole bright spot
in the afternoon came when Khrushchev agreed
to support a neutral government in Laos.