On the brink of War! Standoff at Checkpoint Charlie

On October 27th ,1962 the world stood on the brink of Nuclear War. At a small border crossing between East and West Berlin, the Soviet Union and the United States stood toe to toe, tank to tank, ready to start World War Three. The standoff at Checkpoint Charlie had begun.

In response to a diplomatic incident, Soviet and American commanders on the ground moved T-54 and M-48 tanks to the border between east and west Germany. The standoff lasted for hours as officials waited to see if the situation could be resolved. It was on of the most tense direct standoffs of the cold war. ‪@AnyHistory‬

Historical Background: The Cold War began shortly after World War II ended in 1945. In anticipation of a Soviet attack, the United States and its allies formed the NATO military alliance in 1949, naming their global policy against Soviet influence containment. In response to NATO, the Soviet Union established the Warsaw Pact in 1955. The 1948-1949 Berlin Blockade, the 1927-1949 Chinese Civil War, the 1950-1953 Korean War, the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, the 1956 Suez Crisis, the 1961 Berlin Crisis, and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis were all major crises during this period. The United States and the Soviet Union vied for influence in Latin America, the Middle East, and decolonizing states in Africa, Asia, and Oceania.


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