Nikita Khrushchev
...active fallout was result of the testing. All over the world, people felt this posed a serious long-term health threat. One reason Khrushchev considered a nuclear test ban was the health risk. The advancement of American nuclear technology also evoked respect and fear in Khrushchev. He wanted to slow down this advancement and prevent West Germany and the People’s Republic of China from becoming nuclear powers. The Soviet Union, having just finished a series of tests, announced it was suspending its testing in March 1958. The Soviets knew full well that the United States was about to begin its own series of tests. However, the Soviets suspended testing anyway.(Kort-118) After the Americans had finished their tests, they announced a moratorium of their own, knowing that the Soviets were planning a new test series. This caused a series of tests between both countries. As a result, Soviet-American relations were strained. During Khrushcrev’s years at the Helm, Soviet-America relations ran hot and cold. One of the flash points was Berlin, which was the capital of prewar Germany. Although the city itself was entirely surrounded by Soviet-dominated East Germany, it was divided into two parts. East Berlin, where Soviet troops were stationed, was part of West Germany, a country now allied with the West. The Soviet goal was to force the Western powers out of West Berlin. Periodically, the Soviets would apply pressure, and there would be a crisis; one occurred in 1958. Naturally, each Berlin crisis worsened Soviet-American relations.(Crankshaw-120) In June 1961, the national leaders, Kennedy and Khrushchev met in Vienna. The meeting served only to harden Soviet-American hostility. Khrushchev immediately put pressure on Kennedy to get Western troops out of West Berlin. Kennedy held firm, and no troops were removed. It turned out that Khrushchev was the first to move. By the summer of 1961 he had a genuine crisis on his hands, involving Berlin. Ten thousand East Germans per week, many of them skilled workers, were fleeing their country to the West by crossing from the East Berlin into West Berlin. This was possible because there were no barriers between the two Berlins, and leaving for the West was as easy as a subway ride. Suddenly, on August 13, 1961, Khrushchev acted to close the wound. The Soviets and East Germans began building the Berlin Wall, a barrier that soon cut through the heart of the former capital of Germany and cut off the escape route to the West. The Berlin Wall immediately became and has remained a symbol of Communist failure, of a system that had to build a wall to keep its people from running away. By far the tensest overseas confrontation with Kennedy occurred with the Cuban Missile Crisis. During the spring of 1962, having consulted only with a small group of advisors and colleagues, he decided to place intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Cuba. These missiles were capable of carrying nuclear warheads. This decision was made because Khrushchev faced several problems. First, he and his advisors feared and expected another invasion of Castro’s island, this one a direct attack by American troops. The Soviets very much wanted to protect the Castro regime, which was the first Communist foothold in the Western Hemisphere and therefore one of the Soviet Union’s major foreign policy successes since World War II.(Stuart-133) Secondly, these missiles would have another important payoff. The Soviet Union lagged far behind the United States in developing intercontinental ballistic missiles, those with a range of over 5,000 miles. The Cuban Missile Crisis that resulted from this most daring of Khruschev’s many gambles lasted thirteen days, October 16 through 28, 1962. It brought the two superpowers to the very brink of war, as close as they have ever come. In fact, the world came closer to war than the Soviet and American leaders knew, for they were not always in control of activities they thought they were managing. At one point the American navy had vessels farther out from the Cuban coast than Kennedy had wanted. This was dangerous because it brought American and Soviet ships closer together and so cut down on the time the two sides had to work out a solution. At another point the American nuclear bomber force went on a high alert. This move, which naturally frightened the Soviets, was done on orders of the top American air force general, without authorization from President Kennedy. Just as negotiations were reaching a critical stage, an American...