Balls to the Wall

On the night of Aug 12th 1961 the communist government in East Berlin began stringing barbed wire and posting sentries along all points of entry into West Berlin. Within weeks they escalated to towers, minefields, and the beginning of a concrete wall. Soon the two sides of the city were completely sealed off from one another. The Soviets claimed it was necessary to keep out immoral/decadent western culture and capitalism.
The construction of the wall caused a mini-crisis in US-Soviet relations. The West Germans demanded action, but as US troops approached the wall with bulldozers, the soviets did the same on the other side with tanks and armored units.
President Kennedy decided that "a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war" and so despite West German anger at the inaction the wall stood. In 1963 JFK made the trip to West Berlin to show solidarity by announcing "Ich bin ein Berliner" which when translated means "I am a jelly doughnut".
The wall had gone through four generations of construction, starting with square blocks and concrete, with a second wall built in 1962 to prevent escapes westward. The first two were replaced around 1965 by a third generation of concrete slabs between steel girder and concrete posts. After 1975 the fourth generation used concrete that was easy to build up and was resistant to breakthroughs and environmental polutions.
By the late 80's the Wall had a concrete segment wall 11.81 ft high / 66 mi long, 20 bunkers and 302 watchtowers. Close to 200 people had been killed on the Berlin Wall over the 28 years the wall stood and the wall itself had come to symbolize the Cold War. However, around that same time, President Reagan had forced the Soviets into an escalating arms race, Communist governments were collapsing all across Europe and so the Wall was destined to the same fate. In 1989 the wall was opened, and in 1990 was a wall no more.