Berlin: Muscle at Checkpoint Charlie

It was the most determined show of U.S. strength since the Berlin crisis began, but staged belatedly, over a narrow issue. If one U.S. bulldozer had been at work on Aug. 13 to stop East Germany when it put up the Wall, then last week’s Jeep convoys, backed by growling tanks, would probably not have had to shuttle in and out of East Berlin to demonstrate Western rights.

The test was theoretically over the clear right of Allied access to the Russian sector, based on the four-power agreement of the conquering nations. In practice, the issue was much cloudier: the right of Western personnel, dressed in civilian clothes but driving automobiles with military license plates, to enter East Berlin without showing their identification to East German police, whose regime the U.S. does not recognize.

Western troops in uniform have so far not been harassed seriously by the East German Vopos, but the U.S. and France insist that even civilian-garbed personnel need show such identification only to Soviet officials, not their East German stand-ins. Britain, however, draws no such distinction in dress, permits mufti-clad members of its Berlin forces to flash their identity cards to the Vopos.

Turning the Corner. Despite the inconsistency, the U.S. decided, four times within six days, to flex its military muscle.

Scene of the conflict: the sole checkpoint allotted by the East Germans for Western military entry through the Communist wall. (West Berliners have their own crossing points.)

The first breach was made by Allan Lightner Jr.. State Department Assistant Chief of the Berlin Mission, and his wife, who drove their military-licensed grey Volkswagen up to the Friedrichstrasse checkpoint for East Berlin, found their way blocked by East German police. After a go-minute wait, during which they refused to show their identification to the Vopos. eight M.P.s, their rifles at the ready, walked across the border to Lightner’s car, escorted the slowly driven automobile around the corner, returned the Lightners to the U.S. sector.

Three days later, the entire 6.500-man U.S. garrison in Berlin was put on alert, tanks and armored personnel carriers were rushed to the Friedrichstrasse’s “Checkpoint Charlie” as two U.S. Army officers in civilian clothes, driving a grey Opel sedan, were escorted by three Jeeps filled with armed infantrymen through seven blocks of Communist territory. British Centurion tanks moved up to the Brandenburg Gate in their sector of the city.

Tanks Face Tanks. Next day, while hundreds of West Berliners watched anxiously, tension mounted. Irwin Firestone. Russian-speaking liaison officer on the staff of the Provost Marshal, moved through Checkpoint Charlie in a blue Taunus, escorted by three Jeeps filled with troops wearing bulletproof vests, while tanks idled their engines at the white line that marked the border. “I hope they are not going to start shooting,” said a youthful Vopo. After a five-minute trip, Firestone returned, flashed his headlights in a signal, was again escorted by Jeeps to West Berlin.

During the next 48 hours the East Germans got reinforcements: more than 70 Soviet medium tanks, which parked unobtrusively in the side streets near the border crossing, as the U.S. made a fourth sortie into the Russian sector. For one night, U.S. and Soviet tanks squared off at the point-blank range of 200 yards, but both sides lumbered off at morning without incident. It was the first time that Russian tanks had appeared in Berlin since they put down the uprising in June 1953. No word of their presence has appeared in the East German press or on the radio.

At week’s end, while U.S. and Soviet diplomats exchanged protests. Air Force C-47 transports defiantly circled over East Berlin in a new probe intended to show that in the air, as on the ground, the Western Allies have freedom of movement in the divided city.