In 1961, Soviet Premier Khrushchev, emboldened after a meeting in Vienna with the new and unseasoned President John F. Kennedy, threatened to sign a separate peace treaty with the harsh East German regime.
Hearing this, the number of refugees fleeing East Germany tripled. Director of Radio in the American Sector Robert Lochner later observed, “It became increasingly apparent that the Soviets had to stop the depopulation of East Germany if they were not to lose total control.”

When workers divided Berlin on Aug. 13, 1961, American diplomats discovered construction of the barrier underway during the night. U.S. radio, broadcasting live news segments, warned listeners who might want to escape. Allied protest against the Wall was delayed more than 48 hours, due in part to President Kennedy’s reluctance to provoke confrontation. This delay especially angered West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt. In response, Kennedy sent Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and General Clay to Berlin and mobilized U.S. troops. In October 1961, U.S. and Soviet tanks faced each other over a border crossing incident involving U.S. diplomats. The confrontation took place at Checkpoint Charlie, the U.S. crossing point, but both sides withdrew.

When completed, the Wall ran 26.8 miles across Berlin (96.3 miles total across Germany) evolving from barbed wire into over 13 foot high parallel walls with a “dead man’s zone” in between. Marksmen in towers had orders to shoot to kill escapees. Some daring West Berliners wrote “KZ,” meaning “concentration camp,” on the West side of the Wall.

Fleeing a repressive regime, many East Germans—at least 100 and likely more—died violently attempting to leave between 1961 and 1989. More fortunate escapees relied on tunnels, retrofitted cars, balloons and water craft. Throughout its existence, the hideous Wall disheartened and angered German people.

When John F. Kennedy visited Berlin in 1963, Ambassador's Staff Assistant Paul Cleveland described the President’s approach as a “‘political campaign’ to try to bolster German morale.” Speaking in a plaza named for him later after his death, Kennedy gained immense popular solidarity with the city uttering: Ich bin ein Berliner. Intelligence officer Thomas Hughes recalled how Kennedy turned from relative disinterest in Germany to making it a focus of his foreign policy. Kennedy’s successor, however, President Lyndon B. Johnson, pursued other diplomatic interests.