jun 4, 1961 - Vienna Summit - Meeting between Kennedy and Khrushchev

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"What good were Khrushchev’s missiles, Mao was beginning to ask, if they could not extract western concessions somewhere?" (Gaddis 2006, p. 137)

"Khrushchev concluded, as a result, that he had little choice but to confront Kennedy with a new Berlin ultimatum at the Vienna summit. And after Kennedy made it clear that he, like Eisenhower, was prepared to defend West Berlin, even at the risk of nuclear war, Khrushchev became convinced that the only way out was to allow Ulbricht to do what the East German leader had promised not to do: to wall East Germany off from the capitalist enclave in its midst." (Gaddis 2006, p. 138).

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