By 1958, West Germany was NATO's front line along the Iron Curtain. The United States had been training a new West German army since 1955. German rearmament brought back nightmares for many Europeans, especially for the Soviets and East Germans.

Berlin, meanwhile, was creating a different kind of nightmare for the Soviet bloc. The city was still under the joint occupation of France, Britain, the U.S.S.R. and the United States -- an arrangement that began when the four powers were wartime allies. Berliners could move freely between the city's Eastern and Western sectors, giving East Germans a tantalizing glimpse of the West.

West Berlin was considered a danger to the existence of East Germany. Nikita Khrushchev proposed Berlin become a "free city," with its own foreign policy. But the West rejected Khrushchev's idea.
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