Flashpoints – Hungary, Berlin, Cuba
In the 1950s and early 1960s, relations between the USA and the Soviet Union deteriorated. A series of incidents brought the two to the brink of war.
Events during the crisis
The building of the Berlin Wall
13 August 1961
Khrushchev and East German leader, Walter Ulbricht ordered the closure of the border between East and West Berlin.
East German police and soldiers sealed the most frequently used border crossings between East and West Berlin with barbed wire.
17 August 1961
Soviet troops began to replace the wire with a concrete wall.
It not only ran through the centre of Berlin, but also wrapped around West Berlin, cutting it off from East Germany.
The Berlin Wall had watch-towers, anti-tank devices, ditches, barbed wire, guard dogs, powerful searchlights and minefields to prevent escapes.
The only legal way across the border was through checkpoints.