16 Hours of Peril: Checkpoint Charlie
How JFK’s Commanders Nearly Started WWIII in Berlin
At the conclusion of World War II, the city of Berlin, located deep in the heart of Soviet occupied East Germany, was divided into two sectors: Soviet-controlled East Berlin and American-controlled West Berlin. This arrangement turned Berlin into a permanent fuse that could ignite another global conflict at any moment. The end result was the costly brinksmanship exhibited by both superpowers over the next 40 years.
In March 1947, General Lucius Clay became the High Commissioner (military commander) of Germany, relieving General Dwight Eisenhower of that post. When the Soviets instituted a blockade of Berlin in June of 1947, and without authorization from the president or anyone in his chain of command, General Clay began an airlift that dropped in supplies to the people of West Berlin. The airlifts reportedly occurred every four minutes, 24 hours a day over the next 324 days. Clay’s efforts landed him unsurprisingly on the cover of Henry Luce’s Time magazine on July 12, 1948.
General Clay was relieved by John McCloy at the end of the blockade in 1949. McCloy’s appointment as Germany’s High Commissioner should have come as no surprise. McCloy, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) since 1940 — along with men such as Averill Harriman (CFR), Paul Warburg (CFR) and Robert Lovett (CFR) — had helped finance and rebuild Germany in the 1930s. Adolf Hitler and Herman Goering shared a viewing box with McCloy during the 1936 Olympics. He would later serve alongside longtime CFR colleague Allen Dulles on the Warren Commission after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Lucius Clay became a member of the CFR in 1950 and in 1961 President Kennedy once again placed him in charge of operations in West Berlin. A few months earlier, the Soviets had constructed the Berlin Wall to stop the flow of citizens attempting to flee East Berlin. The crossing point between East and West Berlin became known as Checkpoint Charlie.
On October 27, American and Soviet tanks faced off for 16 perilous hours at Checkpoint Charlie, a standoff that could have quickly escalated into WWIII….
Notice that the American tanks had been equipped with bulldozer attachments. According to James W. Douglass in JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters, General Clay, once again without any order from the president, had secretly begun planning on how to destroy the Berlin Wall, thereby provoking the Soviets into a full-scale armed conflict. The commander had built a duplicate wall in a forest and had M-48 tanks with bulldozer attachments knock it down. Although General Bruce Clarke, the man in charge of European operations, shutdown the rogue operation, the incident remained unknown to the president.
Now on October 27 Clay got the opportunity to try out those bulldozing tactics as 10 American tanks went barrel to barrel with a similar number of Soviet tanks. Luckily for America and the world, Soviet spies had gathered intelligence on Clay’s machinations and were well prepared for this inevitably. Nikita Krushchev, knowing JFK was a man of peace, doubted highly that the American president was behind his ordeal.
As tensions rose in Berlin, Kennedy called Lucius Clay. Unaware of his representative’s dubious plans, he wanted to share his support. “I know you people over there haven’t lost your nerve.”
Showing the same disrespect as the rest of the president’s military leaders, Clay replied, “Mr. President, we’re not worried about our nerves. We’re worrying about those of you people in Washington.”
Crisis was averted because JFK previously had the wisdom to set up a back channel with Krushchev, circumventing normal diplomatic lines of communication. His brother Robert Kennedy worked closely with Soviet press attaché Georgi Bolshakov who had a direct link to the Soviet leader. Kennedy asked Krushchev to make the first move and a short time later, the Americans would do the same.
Inch by inch, the Soviet tanks backed up. After each withdrawal, the American tanks retreated as well. After 16 grueling hours, the crisis at Checkpoint Charlie was over. World War III, or perhaps even a civilization-ending nuclear exchange, was avoided.
The withdrawal of the tanks was fortuitous because men like Lucius Clay were now advocating using nuclear weapons in preemptive strikes. Soon after the incident in Berlin, Secretary of State Dean Rusk (CFR) received a telegram from Clay:
Today, we have the nuclear strength to assure victory at awful cost. It no longer suffices to consider our strength as a deterrent only and to plan to use it only in retaliation. No ground probes on the highway which would use force should or could be undertaken unless we are prepared instantly to follow them with a nuclear strike. It is certain that within two or more years retaliatory power will be useless as whoever strikes first will strike last.
Ironically nearly two years later John Kennedy would give a speech at American University that was in stark contradiction to the words of Lucius Clay.
What kind of peace do I mean, and what kind of a peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana, enforced on the world by American weapons of war.
Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave.
I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, and the kind that enables men and nations to grow, and to hope, and build a better life for their children.
Not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women.
Not merely peace in our time, but peace in all time…
…For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet.
We all breathe the same air.
We all cherish our children’s futures.
And we are all mortal.
Unfortunately it was this exact Pax Americana that members of the CFR such as Lucius Clay, Averill Harriman and Dean Rusk were after. On November 22, 1963, they got their wish.
What are your thoughts on the crisis at Checkpoint Charlie? Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think. If you enjoyed this article, I ask that you share it and give it a clap or two.
