jbutcher
Crossing into East Berlin via Checkpoint Charlie
Photo taken 16 June 2006 by Joshua Butcher
This is Checkpoint Charlie, situated on the border between East and West Berlin, This checkpoint became the most well known on 27 October 1961 when Soviet tanks and American tanks faced off for the first time in history. Prior to this, the two superpowers had never directly confronted each other but had instead used proxies. But on Friday, October 27, 1961 it was ten Soviet tanks, not East German, and six American tanks facing off on both sides of Checkpoint Charlie. The Soviets wanted control of Berlin and were bluffing war, however, the American General Clay saw through the bluff when the Soviets pulled up twenty more tanks, to equal the number the Americans had in Berlin, and stood his ground. Sixteen hours after the crisis started, at around 1030am on 28 October, the Soviets backed down and retreated. Thirty minutes later, the American tanks left. The Soviet Premier Khrushchev later said that he did not want war, and he knew that if the tanks went forward, he would have it, but if they went back, he would have peace. General Clay had also said that “If the Soviets don’t want war over West Berlin, we can’t start it, if they do, there’s nothing we can do to stop them.”
Wyden, Peter. Wall: The Inside Story of Divided Berlin. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.
Wolfgang, Ingo. "Tanks at Checkpoint Charlie: Lucius Clay and the Berlin Crisis." Cold War History. (2006): 205-228.
Crossing into East Berlin via Checkpoint Charlie
Photo taken 16 June 2006 by Joshua Butcher
This is Checkpoint Charlie, situated on the border between East and West Berlin, This checkpoint became the most well known on 27 October 1961 when Soviet tanks and American tanks faced off for the first time in history. Prior to this, the two superpowers had never directly confronted each other but had instead used proxies. But on Friday, October 27, 1961 it was ten Soviet tanks, not East German, and six American tanks facing off on both sides of Checkpoint Charlie. The Soviets wanted control of Berlin and were bluffing war, however, the American General Clay saw through the bluff when the Soviets pulled up twenty more tanks, to equal the number the Americans had in Berlin, and stood his ground. Sixteen hours after the crisis started, at around 1030am on 28 October, the Soviets backed down and retreated. Thirty minutes later, the American tanks left. The Soviet Premier Khrushchev later said that he did not want war, and he knew that if the tanks went forward, he would have it, but if they went back, he would have peace. General Clay had also said that “If the Soviets don’t want war over West Berlin, we can’t start it, if they do, there’s nothing we can do to stop them.”
Wyden, Peter. Wall: The Inside Story of Divided Berlin. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.
Wolfgang, Ingo. "Tanks at Checkpoint Charlie: Lucius Clay and the Berlin Crisis." Cold War History. (2006): 205-228.