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Berlin crisis of 1961: Quick Facts

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Facts

Date August 1961
Participants Soviet Union • United States
Context Berlin Wall • Cold War

Photos and Videos

The Brandenburg Gate is seen through coils of barbed wire, with a sign reading in German that you are leaving West Berlin, during the early Berlin Wall era, circa 1962.
Standoff at Checkpoint Charlie
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Learn about the U-2 incident and the collapse of the 1960 Paris summit
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Witness the creation and collapse of the Berlin Wall separating East Germany and West Germany
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Related Topics and References

Topics

Timeline

President Harry S. Truman and Prime Minister Winston Churchill stand side by side on the steps of the Little White House during the Potsdam Conference.
Iron Curtain speech
March 5, 1946
Harry Truman's presidency: World War II, the atomic bomb, and the Cold War
Truman Doctrine
March 12, 1947
George C. Marshall
Marshall Plan
April 1948 - December 1951
Berlin blockade and airlift
Berlin blockade
June 24, 1948 - May 12, 1949
Map of Europe in 1960 during the Cold War, showing countries color-coded by political alignment: NATO members in green across Western Europe, Warsaw Pact countries in orange in Eastern Europe, and non-aligned nations in beige. The Soviet Union and its allies are grouped to the east, while Western European countries are aligned with the United States.
Warsaw Pact
May 14, 1955 - July 1, 1991
Francis Gary Powers
U-2 Incident
May 5, 1960 - May 17, 1960
Black-and-white photo of armed soldiers escorting captured men with hands bound in front, during the Bay of Pigs invasion, 1961. Other soldiers follow in the background.
Bay of Pigs invasion
April 17, 1961
The Brandenburg Gate is seen through coils of barbed wire, with a sign reading in German that you are leaving West Berlin, during the early Berlin Wall era, circa 1962.
Berlin crisis of 1961
August 1961
Kennedy announces U.S. naval blockade of Cuba
Cuban missile crisis
October 22, 1962 - November 20, 1962
John F. Kennedy: Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
August 5, 1963
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
1969 - 1979
default image
Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions
October 1973 - February 9, 1989
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Korean Air Lines flight 007
September 1, 1983
Ronald Reagan (left) and Mikhail Gorbachev, 1986
Reykjavík summit of 1986
October 11, 1986 - October 12, 1986
Boris Yeltsin and the collapse of the Soviet Union
collapse of the Soviet Union
August 18, 1991 - December 31, 1991

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