The Cold War: The Berlin Crisis

In 1961, a wall divided the city of Berlin, Germany. People crowd the streets begging for food. Armed guards keep the crowd under control. Chaos ensues the scene. This was a pivotal time in the Cold War between democracies and communist governments, particularly the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War caused the two major powers to clash, leaving people in fear of a nuclear war. U.S. officials had the near impossible task of predicting the endeavors of Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of Russia (Targeted News Service 1). The Berlin Crisis was a conflict of interests that caused the separation of Germany. As one of many conflicts of the Cold War, the Berlin Crisis was not a battle or bloody conflict. The effect of the Berlin Wall on the people caused many economic issues and led to rising caused tensions between opposing nations. The splitting of Germany was due to the Cold War. Tensions were high and it seemed that the conflict could turn into a nuclear war at any minute. After World War II, Germany lay in disorder. The Soviets had occupied Eastern Germany since the end of the war; they began to take power. Eastern Germany broke away and became Communist as it was under control of the Soviet Union. Soon after, East Germany, known as the East German regime, began to decline (Kennedy 1). The economy was in ruin and the people were living a lower standard of life. People had almost no political freedom because it was ran by communist leaders of Russia. These many different issues sparked
It caused economic distress as well as shortage of resources. It split a country and caused Cold War tensions to rise. It split families in two. Communist East Germany wanted to stop their citizens from escaping to West Germany. This lead to the Berlin Wall and many years of difficult times and separation. This just goes to show how one issue can snowball into a much larger