16 September 1962: Khrushchev's Berlin Plan

Canadian diplomats in Moscow were concerned with understanding Khrushchev’s assessment of Berlin and of President Kennedy. Arnold Smith reports on a conversation with Khrushchev that he “really seems determined . . . to bring the world to very brink of thermonuclear war in order to force Western abandonment of our pledge to Berliner’s security.” According to this assessment, the “crucial danger point” was Khrushchev’s belief that Kennedy and the rest of the Western powers would back down in the face of such a proposition. The Canadian assessment of Kennedy, however, is that he “would not back down on vital issues of free access and continued American presence in Berlin.”