The Berlin crisis, 1958-1962

Provides a record of U.S. policy during the most prolonged U.S.-Soviet crisis of the Cold War era. For four years, from late 1958 until late 1962, world leaders worried that the ongoing controversy over the political status of West Berlin would spark a military confrontation and general war. This collection, the most comprehensive available on the subject, consists of over 2,900 documents totaling approximately 11,000 pages. Although most of the documentation covers the crisis years themselves, the set also includes events leading up to the crisis as well as developments in its wake. To the greatest extent possible, the collection covers the most salient aspects of the Berlin situation during the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations, including East-West negotiations, military preparations, contingency planning, the "Wall Crisis" and other developments in Berlin and the two Germanies.