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====Khrushchev demanded that the US pullout of West Berlin====
Looking for a way to stop the flow of people from east to west and a means to check the growing military power of West Germany, Khrushchev insisted in his November 1958 speech that it was time for the United States to pull out of the city. The west interpreted his speech as an ultimatum, and U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower became determined not to give in to Soviet demands. Instead, the two sides opened a foreign minister’s conference at Geneva in 1959 and attempted to negotiate a new Berlin agreement on Berlin. Khrushchev wanted the Western garrisons out of West Berlin as a precursor to reunifying the city. Still, Eisenhower believed that protecting the freedom of West Berlin required an ongoing U.S. presence.
Although Khrushchev and Eisenhower made some progress toward mutual understanding during talks at Camp David in the United States in 1959, relations became tense after the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 spy plane canvassing Soviet territory in 1960. In the wake of this incident, there appeared to be little hope for accommodation. At that point, talks ceased, and the Soviet premier appeared willing to wait for the U.S. presidential elections to take place so he could begin anew with the incoming administration.
====Wall built and troops occupy East Berlin====
[[File:Nikita_Khrushchev_in_1959.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|Nikita Khruschev in 1959]]
However, the first negotiations between the new U.S. President and Khrushchev did not result in a resolution. In the summer of 1961, President John F. Kennedy met with Khrushchev in Vienna to address the ongoing issue of Berlin and the countries’ competing interests in Laos, and the question of disarmament. Although they agreed to further discussions on Laos, they found no solution to the Berlin problem.
In the wake of the conference, Khrushchev once again gave the United States six months to withdraw from Berlin. Kennedy responded by activating 150,000 reservists and increasing defense expenditures in preparation for a potential conflict over the city's future. Unwilling to face a potential nuclear escalation over the city, Khrushchev prepared to take his own action form.
Shortly after the wall was erected, a standoff between U.S. and Soviet troops on either side of the diplomatic checkpoint led to one of the Cold War's tensest moments in Europe. A dispute over whether East German or Soviet guards were authorized to patrol the checkpoints and examine U.S. diplomats' travel documents passing through led the United States to station tanks on its side of the checkpoint, pointing toward the East German troops just beyond the wall.
Concerns that U.S. forces would either attempt to take down the wall or force their way through the checkpoint led the Soviet Union to station its own tanks on the East German side. A wrong move during the face-off could have led to war, and any conventional skirmish between two nuclear powers always brought with it the risk of escalation. Instead, Kennedy made use of used back channels to suggest that Khrushchev remove his tanks, promising that the U.S. Army would reciprocate if the Soviet Union did so. The standoff ended peacefully.
====Conclusion====
