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Night-shot, MLS of Soviet tanks MCU of Soviet tank facing down the Friedrichstrasse In a standoff against U.S. tanks, Soviet tanks sit across from Checkpoint Charlie on the East Berlin side of the Friedrichstrasse during the Berlin Crisis of 1961. In August 1961, during the Cold War, Soviet and East German forces, headed by Nikita Khrushchev and Walter Ulbricht, respectively, erected the Berlin Wall in an effort to halt westward emigration out of the Soviet-controlled Eastern Bloc. The wall bisected the north-south-running Friedrichstrasse, where Checkpoint Charlie, the most well-known crossing point between East and West Berlin, is located. In October 1961, towards the end of the Berlin Crisis, President John F. Kennedy ordered the US Air National Guard to mobilize numerous squadrons in response to Soviet efforts to block allied, Big Four access to Berlin.