{"title":"The Autobahn Crises of 1963: The U.S. Military and the Last Major Cold War Showdowns over Berlin","authors":"David I. Goldman","doi":"10.1162/jcws_a_01187","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"By mid-1963, the immediate threat to European security from the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 had receded, but East-West tensions over the city remained high. Although some scholars such as Marc Trachtenberg have claimed that the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 was followed by a lasting East-West détente in Europe, this article shows that the status of Berlin remained a Cold War flashpoint until well into 1963. The article highlights three of the military showdowns (the so-called Autobahn crises) that occurred in October and November 1963 over the transportation rules for U.S., British, and French access to West Berlin. The crises caused a good deal of friction, but their resolution ushered in a more peaceful time for Berlin and Europe as a whole.","PeriodicalId":45551,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cold War Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Cold War Studies","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1162/jcws_a_01187","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
By mid-1963, the immediate threat to European security from the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 had receded, but East-West tensions over the city remained high. Although some scholars such as Marc Trachtenberg have claimed that the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 was followed by a lasting East-West détente in Europe, this article shows that the status of Berlin remained a Cold War flashpoint until well into 1963. The article highlights three of the military showdowns (the so-called Autobahn crises) that occurred in October and November 1963 over the transportation rules for U.S., British, and French access to West Berlin. The crises caused a good deal of friction, but their resolution ushered in a more peaceful time for Berlin and Europe as a whole.