A second secretary: Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall, 149: TsKhSD, “Zapis’ besedy s sekretarem Berlinskogo okruzhkoma SEPG G. Naemliisom,” October 17, 1960, from the diary of A. P. Kazennov, Second Secretary of the USSR embassy in the GDR, October 24, 1960, R. 8948, Fond 5, Opis 49, D. 288, 5; Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall, 147.
Ulbricht had created a new National Defense Council: Armin Wagner, Walter Ulbricht und die geheime Sicherheitspolitik der SED: Der Nationale Verteidigungsrat der DDR und seine Vorgeschichte (1953–1971). Berlin: Christoph Links, 2002, 189; Matthias Uhl and Armin Wagner, “Another Brick in the Wall: Reexamining Soviet and East German Policy During the 1961 Berlin Crisis: New Evidence, New Documents,” CWIHP Working Paper, published under “Storming On to Paris: The 1961 ‘Buria’ Exercise and the Planned Solution of the Berlin Crisis,” in Vojtech Mastny, Sven G. Holtsmark, and Andreas Wenger, eds., War Plans and Alliances in the Cold War: Threat Perceptions in the East and West. New York: Routledge, 2006, 46–71; Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall, 149.
In his most recent letter: Stiftung Archive der Parteien und Massenorganisationen im Bundesarchiv (SAPMO-BArch), Letter from Ulbricht and the SED delegation in Moscow to the First Secretary of the CC of the CPSU, Comrade Khrushchev, Moscow, November 22, 1960, ZPA, DY, 30/J IV 2/202/336, Bd. 2, 1;11.
Khrushchev assured a skeptical Ulbricht: Fursenko and Naftali, Khrushchev’s Cold War, 340–341.
Though Ulbricht remained distrustful: Fursenko and Naftali, Khrushchev’s Cold War, 341; Letter from Ulbricht to Khrushchev, September 15 1961. SED Archives, IfGA, ZPA, Central Committee files, Walter Ulbricht’s office, Internal Party Archive, J IV 2/202/130, in Harrison, “Ulbricht and the Concrete ‘Rose,’” CWIHP Working Paper No. 5, 126–130, Appendices; Letter from Ulbricht and the SED CC delegation to the CPSU 22nd Congress in Moscow to Khrushchev, October 30, 1961, SED Archives, IfGA, ZPA, NL 182/1206, in Harrison, “Ulbricht and the Concrete ‘Rose,’” 132–139.
“The situation in Berlin”: Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall, 151.
“We still have not taken”: AVP-RF, Record of Meeting of Comrade N. S. Khrushchev with Comrade W. Ulbricht, November 30, 1960, Fond 0742, Opis 6, Por 4, Papka 43, Secret, in Harrison, “Ulbricht and the Concrete ‘Rose,’” CWIHP Working Paper No. 5, 69, Appendices.
“Luckily, our adversaries”: AVP-RF, Record of Meeting of Comrade N. S. Khrushchev with Comrade W. Ulbricht, 30 November 1960, Fond 0742, Opis 6, Por 4, Papka 43, Secret, in Harrison, “Ulbricht and the Concrete ‘Rose,’” CWIHP Working Paper No. 5, 73.
3. KENNEDY: A PRESIDENT’S EDUCATION
“We can live with the status quo”: Fursenko and Naftali, Khrushchev’s Cold War, 342; quotation retrieved from David G. Coleman, “‘The Greatest Issue of All’: Berlin, American National Security, and the Cold War, 1948–1963,” unpublished dissertation (University of Queensland, 2000), 236–237.
“So let us begin anew”: The National Archives, Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, 222.
Eisenhower worried about Kennedy’s: Robert Dallek, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963. Boston: Little, Brown, 2003, 302; DDEL, Earl Mazo OH (Columbia Oral History Project); Herbert S. Parmet, JFK—The Presidency of John F. Kennedy. New York: The Dial Press, 1983, 72; Geoffrey Perret, Eisenhower. New York: Random House, 1 999, 597.
Eisenhower doubted young Kennedy: Michael O’Brien, John F. Kennedy: A Biography. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005, 175–176, 189–190; John Hersey, “Reporter at Large: Survival,” New Yorker, June 17, 1944.
On the cold, overcast morning: Washington Post, 01/19/1961; New York Times, 01/19/1961.
Ahead of the meeting: JFKL, President’s Office Files (POF), Memo of Subjects for Discussion at Meeting of President Eisenhower and Senator Kennedy on Thursday, January 19, 1961, Box 29a.
Eisenhower told Democratic political operative: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, 303; New York Times, 12/07/1960; JFKL, Robert F. Kennedy OH; JFKL, Clark Clifford OH; O’Brien, JFK, 501.
Kennedy had been less taken with: JFKL, Robert F. Kennedy OH; JFKL, Charles Spalding OH; Dallek, An Unfinished Life, 302.
In contrasting Eisenhower with Kennedy: JFKL, Hervé Alphand OH.
Kennedy was perplexed: JFKL, Robert F. Kennedy OH; Arthur M. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965, 118–119; Gary A. Donaldson. The First Modern Campaign: Kennedy, Nixon, and the Election of 1960. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, 150; O’Brien, JFK, 499; Geoffrey Perret, Jack: A Life Like No Other. New York: Random House, 2002, 271–272; JFKL, John Sharon OH.
And his coattails: New York Times, 11/10/1960; Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, 125; Perret, Jack: A life like no other, 272; Benjamin C. Bradlee, Conversations with Kennedy. New York: W. W. Norton, 1975, 33–34; JFKL, Clark Clifford OH.
During his transition briefings: Lawrence Freedman, Kennedy’s Wars—Berlin, Cuba, Laos and Vietnam. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, 61; O’Brien, JFK, 550, 624, 644, 664.
Instead, the two teams: O’Brien, JFK, 509–513, 644.
“Current Soviet tactics”: DDEL, Dwight D. Eisenhower Papers as President of the United States, Presidential Transition Series, Box 1, Topics suggested by Mr. Kennedy.
Martin Hillenbrand, the director: JFKL, Martin Hillenbrand OH.
“We can live with the status quo”: Fursenko and Naftali, Khrushchev’s Cold War, 342; quote retrieved from David G. Coleman, “‘The Greatest Issue of All’: Berlin, American National Security, and the Cold War, 1948–1963,” unpublished dissertation (University of Queensland, 2000), 236–237.
In February 1959, Kennedy: New York Times, 02/23/1959.
“Our position in Europe”: Washington Post, 08/02/1959.
In an article published by: New York Times, 06/15/1960.
The president had only 5,000 troops: Kowalczuk and Wolle, Roter Stern über Deutschland, 97; Alan John Day, ed. Border and Territorial Disputes. Detroit: Gale Research, 1982, 42.
The CIA document warned Kennedy: CIA, National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) 11-4-60 Main Trends in Soviet Capabilities and Policies, 1960–1965; reproduced in Loch K. Johnson, Strategic Intelligence, vol. 1. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007, Appendix E, 257–263 (263).
So, with Berlin on hold: O’Brien, JFK, 355, 512, 613–614, 624.
Eisenhower portrayed Laos as: O’Brien, JFK, 512–513; Mark K. Updegrove, Second Acts: Presidential Lives and Legacies after the White House. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2006, 29.
Kennedy was struck by Eisenhower’s: JFKL, POF, JFK Memo, Special Correspondence, Greenstein and Immerman, January 19, 1961, Box 29a, 573, 577; POF, Clark Clifford to JFK, Special correspondence, January 24, 1961, Box 29a; Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. New York: Vintage Books, 1996, 35–36; Time, 01/27/1961, 10; Perret, Eisenhower, 599–600; DDEL, Memcon, January 19, 1961; Harry S. Truman Library. Memo, Clark Clifford to LBJ, November 29, 1967; DDEL, Major General Wilton B. Persons OH (Columbia Oral History Project); Dallek, An Unfinished Life, 302–305; Hugh Sidey, John F. Kennedy, President. New York: Atheneum, 1964, 37; Parmet, JFK, 80.
Eisenhower made no reference to: Freedman, Kennedy’s Wars, 47–48; Fursenko and Naftali, Khrushchev’s Cold War, 258.
“You have an invaluable asset”: Perret, Jack: A Life Like No Other, 278.
Eisenhower picked up a special phone: Perret, Jack: A Life Like No Other, 278. “Kennedy Given Example of Fast Helicopter Service,” Washington Post, 01/20/1961; Times Herald, “The Unusual and the Routine Fill Eisenhower’s Final Day at the White House,” New York Times, 01/20/1961.
Two-thirds of the sold-out crowd: Christian Science Monitor, 01/21/1961.
The skies opened: Beschloss, Crisis Years, 48; Charles C. Kenney, John F. Kennedy: The Presidential Portfolio: History as told through the collection of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. New York: Public Affairs, 2000; Richard M.
Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon. New York: Warner Books, 1979, 23; Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy. New York: HarperCollins, 1965, 240–242.
Dean Acheson, who had been President Truman’s: Beschloss, Crisis Years, 19.
On December 1, 1960, Kennedy: Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali, One Hell of a Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958–1964. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997, 81–82; JFKL, RFK Pre-Administration Political Files, 1960 telephone log, Box 54; Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall, 166–167; Fursenko and Naftali, Khrushchev’s Cold War, 349–351.
Less encouraging to Khrushchev: Fursenko and Naftali, One Hell of a Gamble, 81–82, quoting Archive of the Foreign Intelligence Service. Shelepin to N. S. Khrushchev, December 3, 1960.
A few days later, on December 12: Sidey, JFK, 39; Beschloss, Crisis Years, 32.
The ambassador, whom U.S. officials: Beschloss, Crisis Years, 32; Adlai E. Stevenson Papers, Stevenson memo: Tucker conversation, January 16, 1960.
Menshikov argued to Bobby: JFKL, Memo, Robert F. Kennedy to Rusk, Robert F. Kennedy Papers, December 12, 1960.
Two days after meeting with: Beschloss, Crisis Years, 42; JFKL, Harriman Memcon, Harriman Papers, November 21 and December 14, 1960.
“I think it’s important to find out”: Martin, Adlai Stevenson, 571.
Beyond that, West German Chancellor: Baltimore Sun, 10/20/1960.
After much eating and drinking: David K. E. Bruce diary entry, January 5, 1961, Department of State, Bruce Diaries, Lot 64, D 327, Secret; FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 10.
Just nine days before his inauguration: George F. Kennan and T. Christopher Jespersen, eds., Interviews with George F. Kennan. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002, 56–57.
Yet Kennan now opposed: JFKL, George Kennan OH.
During the campaign, Kennan told Kennedy: David Mayers, George Kennan and the Dilemmas of US Foreign Policy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988, 208.
Asked by Kennedy why Khrushchev was so eager: Kennan and Jespersen, Interviews with Kennan, 59.
A first version read: Sorensen, Kennedy, 242.
Just as important as his words: Dallek, An Unfinished Life, 176, 317, 322, 342; Lincoln Papers, Evelyn Lincoln Diary, January 2, 4, 11, 16, 20, 1961; JFKL, Janet Travell OH.
It quoted his physicians: New York Times, 01/17/1961.
The article listed adult health issues: New York Times, 01/21/1961.
David Murphy: David E. Murphy, Sergei A. Kondrashev, and George Bailey, Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997, 343–349, 359; Cable, Berlin, January 4, 1961, in Dispatch, Berlin, February 15, 1961, CIA-HRP (Historical Review Program); “Goleniewski’s Work with the Soviets,” Memo, January 4, 1964, CIA-HRP.
Murphy had warned the CIA: David C. Martin, Wilderness of Mirrors: Intrigue, Deception, and the Secrets That Destroyed Two of the Cold War’s Most Important Agents. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2003, 97–98.
The CIA also needed: Martin, Wilderness of Mirrors, 91.
4. KENNEDY: A FIRST MISTAKE
“The United States Government”: FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 12.
“Each day, the crises”: Brian R. Dirck, The Executive Branch of Federal Government: People, Process, and Politics. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007, 457–459 (457).
Nikita Khrushchev summoned the U.S. ambassador: Beschloss, Crisis Years, 54–55; JFKL, Thompson to Rusk, January 21 and January 24, 1961.
Khrushchev then nodded: FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 9–10, Telegram from the Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Department of State, Moscow, January 21, 1961, 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Khrushchev had carefully calculated: Beschloss, Crisis Years, 149; Fursenko and Naftali, Khrushchev’s Cold War, 290, 338; David Knight, The Spy Who Never Was and Other True Spy Stories. New York: Doubleday, 1978.
Back in November: JFKL, National Security Files NSF, Harriman to JFK, November 12 and November 15, 1960, Box 176; also see FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 10–11.
The aide-mémoire said: JFKL, POF, Telegram, Thompson to JFK, January 21, 1961, Box 125a.
When Khrushchev’s offer to release: JFKL, Rusk to Thompson, January 23, 1961; Beschloss, Crisis Years, 55, 56; Philip A. Goduti Jr., Kennedy’s Kitchen Cabinet and the Pursuit of Peace: The Shaping of American Foreign Policy, 1961–1963. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009, 20–21.
Secretary of State Dean Rusk: FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 11, Telegram from the Department of State to the Embassy in the Soviet Union, January 23, 1961, 5:57 p.m.
In the meantime, Khrushchev: Zubok and Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War.
Eager to be useful to Kennedy: JFKL, POF, Telegram, Thompson to JFK, January 19, 1961, Box 125a.
The president had initially responded: Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, 487; JFKL, Memo, Bundy to JFK, February 27, 1961.
Kennedy radiated calm self-satisfaction: FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 12.
But among friends and advisers: JFKL, JFK to Bundy, February 6, 1961; JFKL, McNamara to Bundy, February 23, 1961, Box 328 NSF/NSWTB; Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, 303–306, 344, 346–347. Richard Reeves, President Kennedy: Profile of Power. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993, 40–41.
“You’ve got to understand”: JFKL, Robert F. Kennedy OH; Beschloss, Crisis Years, 61; Ralph G. Martin, A Hero of Our Time: An Intimate Story of the Kennedy Years. New York: Macmillan, 1983, 351; Saturday Evening Post, 03/31/1962.
The text: For text of Khrushchev’s January 6 speech, see Pravda, January 24, 1961; extracts printed also in American Foreign Policy, Current Documents, 1961, 555–558; CIA, Current Intelligence Weekly Review, January 26, 1961, Job 79-S01060A; FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 15.
The text spoke of Kremlin support: JFKL, NSF, Box 176; “Khrushchev Report on Moscow Conference of Representatives of Communist and Working Parties,” Papers of President Kennedy: NSF, Countries, Box 189.
With its timing just ahead of: JFKL and DDEL, Thompson–Herter, January 19, 1961; Beschloss, Crisis Years, 61.
Then Secretary of State Christian A. Herter had told: Digital National Security Archive (DNSA). Memo for the President, Christian A. Herter, December 9, 1960, Subject: Analysis of the Moscow Statement of Communist Parties.
He began by listing: JFKL, John F. Kennedy, January 30, 1961.
Four days after that, McNamara: Beschloss, Crisis Years, 65–66. Andrew Bacevich, “Field Marshal McNamara,” The National Interest online, May 1, 2007.
On February 11, Khrushchev returned: Beschloss, Crisis Years, 78–79; Alexander Rabinowitch, ed., Revolution and Politics in Russia: Essays in Memory of B. I. Nicolaevsky. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972, 281–292.
Twelve days after his State of the Union: JFKL, NSF, N. S. Khrushchev speech, Thompson telegrams, Buildup to 02/11/1961 meeting, and Preparation for Thompson trip to Moscow, Box 176.
The long-awaited meeting: Sidey, JFK, 164; Sorensen, Kennedy, 164, 542; JFKL, NSF, Notes on Discussion, February 11, 1961, Countries Series, USSR, Top Secret, “The Thinking of the Soviet Leadership,” Cabinet Room; Bundy drafted.
At age fifty-six, Thompson: David Mayers, “After Stalin: The Ambassadors and America’s Soviet Policy, 1953–1962,” Diplomacy and Statecraft, 5, no. 2 (July 1994), 213–247; David Mayers, The Ambassadors and America’s Soviet Policy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, 201.
He agreed with Khrushchev’s view: Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, 399.
“We have refused these overtures”: DNSA, Relationship of Berlin Problem to Future of Germany and Overall Relations with Soviet Union, Secret, Cable, 1773, March 9, 1959.
“He is the most pragmatic”: JFKL, Memcon, February 11, 1961; JFKL, Kennan, Bohlen, Thompson OHs; JFKL, Thompson–DFR, February 13, 1961, BOX 176, Documents for Thompson Telegrams; Beschloss, Crisis Years, 69.
Pointing to Khrushchev’s Kremlin opposition: FRU
S, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 20.
He said the Soviets were “deeply concerned”: JFKL, Thompson–Rusk, February 4, 1961, also in Declassified Documents, 1977/74B; Marc Trachtenberg, History and Strategy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991, 172.
Thompson said Khrushchev would be influenced: JFKL, Thompson–Rusk, February 4, 1961, also in Declassified Documents, 1977/74B; Beschloss, Crisis Years, 175.
Walter Dowling, the U.S. ambassador: Department of State, Telegram 1218 from Bonn, Central Files, 762.00/2-861, also in Declassified Documents, 1977/74C.
“I am sure we would err”: FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 20.
The February 11 meeting: JFKL, Charles Bohlen OH, May 21, 1964; FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 26, Notes on Discussion, drafted by Bundy, “The Thinking of the Soviet Leadership,” Cabinet Room, February 11, 1961; Dallek, An Unfinished Life, 342, 546.
The men arrayed before him: Beschloss, Crisis Years, 68–70; JFKL, Memcon, February 11, 1961; JFKL, Kennan, Bohlen, Thompson OHs; JFKL, Thompson–DFR, February 13, 1961; New York Times, 02/10/1961, 02/12/1961, 02/19/1961; Schlesinger, A Thousand Days, 303–306; Sorensen, Kennedy, 510, 541–542.
Thompson argued that the U.S. “hope for the future”: JFKL, NSF, Notes on Discussion, February 11, 1961, Countries Series, USSR, Top Secret, “The Thinking of the Soviet Leadership,” Cabinet Room; Bundy drafted; FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 26.
Bohlen opposed Khrushchev’s suggestion: FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. V, Soviet Union, Doc. 26.
As he had told his aide: Kenneth P. O’Donnell and David F. Powers, with Joe McCarthy, “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye”: Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Boston: Little, Brown, 1972, 286.
Beyond that, other countries: Sidey, JFK, 164.
“It is my duty to make decisions”: Sorensen, Kennedy, 542–543.
On February 27, Bundy instructed: DNSA, Crisis over Berlin, February 27, 1961, vol. 7.
But by the time Thompson phoned: Beschloss, Crisis Years, 80.
Khrushchev delivered a speech: New York Times, 03/07/1961.
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