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The Time US And Soviet Tanks Stood Nose-To-Nose Looking For An Excuse To Fire
Standoff at Checkpoint Charlie
The Berlin wall was constructed in 1961 and immediately changed the complexion of the German capital. The wall was seen as a necessary tool for East Germany to wield due to a series of crises that had arisen between 1958 and 1961. The problem was the fact that Berlin lay squarely in East German territory, but a sizable chunk of the city was administered by the United States, France, and Great Britain.
East Germany was frustrated by the fact that numerous East German citizens were sneaking into West Berlin and then catching buses and planes out of the communist satellite. These people constituted a constant brain drain on East Germany, which they were eager to stop. The problem was that with the conventions put in place in 1945, there was no good way to prevent people from entering West Berlin and vanishing from Soviet influence.
The solution envisioned was an ugly wall, guarded by tanks and sentry towers, that would go on to become one of the most enduring symbols of the Cold War. Naturally, constructing such a barrier across Berlin raised tensions between the Soviet Union and the West. The construction of the wall kicked off the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the last major crisis centered around the contested city.
