The book begins by explaining how the wall was put up. East Berlin put it up because of the refugees that were leaving East Berlin by the thousands to live in West Berlin. The amount of people leaving threatened the existence of the communistic party in East Berlin, and so it was decided by the political party there, the German Democratic Republic, that something had to be done.

At 1:00 am on August 13, 1961, the Berlin Wall was built. It first started out as a border made of barbed wire and cement posts. Soon the supply of cement was running out, so streets were being torn up to make the wall. West Berliners looked on in disbelief at the overturned trees, trenches, and barbed wire. Yet they couldn't do anything about it because on the opposite side was guards with guns pointing directly at them. After the work on the wall was completed, it was 10-13 feet high. If it were straight, it

The book then goes back World War Two to show how this all began. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and United States president Dwight Eisenhower had mixed opinions on what to do about Berlin and the Soviets. They both knew the Soviets couldn't be trusted. When the American army was going to invade Berlin, Eisenhower had them stop. Three days later, the Soviets successfully captured Germans capitol and ended World War Two in Europe.

According to Gelb, the United States took what was happening in Berlin lightly. When Berlin Task Force officer, John Ausland, was called and told that trouble was fomenting in Berlin, Ausland said to call back later and went back to sleep. When the news finally reached John F. Kennedy, president at the time, the message was still unclear. No one knew what was going on. What was clear though, was that West Germany was not in control of Berlin.

On the communistic East side there was another smaller wall. The land inbetween these walls were extremely dangerous. Guard patrolled this area with guns. This didn't stop people from trying to get through though. People went to all extremes trying to get to the other sides, including crashing through the wall with cars.

Berliners didn'

Some common words found in the essay are:
West Berliners, East Berlin, West Berlin, United French, Berlin Wall, Potsdamer Platz, Soviets Western, Democratic Republic, Berlin Eisenhower, east berlin, Krushchev Soviet, west berlin, berlin wall, west berliners, barbed wire, west berliners east, berliners east, east germany, german democratic, world war, democratic republic, german democratic republic, border barbed wire,
Approximate Word count = 831
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)