Britain and the Berlin Wall Crisis, 1958–62

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

John Gearson

Published:

2002

Publisher:

Palgrave Macmillan UK

The problem of Berlin during the late 1950s and early 1960s offers a unique insight into the crisis management approach of British foreign policy makers in the post-Suez environment, revealing the extent to which Britain’s world role still was not clear at a time of profound change. Inasmuch as Britain still harbours an ambiguous approach towards its European partners, still conceiving a unique role for herself in transatlantic relations, the events of the Berlin crisis have important implications for understanding how Britain’s future role remains unclear to many even today. Indeed the Berlin crisis was the background to the decision to seek membership of the European Economic Community (EEC) and as such, the event perhaps as profoundly as Suez, shaped Britain’s later placement in the world. Pointedly, it was during the Berlin Wall crisis that Dean Acheson, the former secretary of state and Berlin adviser to President John F. Kennedy, famously commented that Britain had lost an Empire but had yet to find a role.

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