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Officials: Khrushchev Seeks to Inflict Humiliation on the West in Berlin Crisis

Oct. 14, 1961 - Recent Soviet moves in the Berlin crisis have strengthened the conviction in Washington that Premier Khrushchev is less interested in negotiation than in inflicting a deep humiliation on the West, particularly on the U.S. In particular, it is now assumed that he is maneuvering to achieve one or both of the following objectives:

1. To break the economic and political ties between West Berlin and West Germany. Deprived of the outside support that has kept it thriving, the isolated city, 110 miles inside Communist territory, would then “wither on the vine.”

2. To divide West Germany from her allies and thus break the power of NATO.



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