Both Kennedy and Khrushchev considered Berlin “the most dangerous spot in the world.” They had been sparring over the city ever since Kennedy’s election as president. The status quo was unacceptable to the Soviets: hundreds of East German refugees were crossing the border every day. At the Vienna summit in June 1961, the Soviet leader threatened to sign a peace treaty with East Germany and eliminate Allied rights to West Berlin. Two months later, he chose a different option, erecting a 104-mile-long “anti-Fascist defense barrier,” more commonly known in the West as the Berlin Wall.
