Editing Ich bin ein Berliner (section)

==Background==
{{Main|History of Berlin}}
{{more citations needed section|date=June 2017}}
[[File:Berlin Blockade-map.svg|thumb|right|The four sectors of Berlin]]
Germany's capital, Berlin, was deep within the area controlled by the [[Soviet Union]] after [[World War II]]. Initially governed in four sectors controlled by the four [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] powers (United States, United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union), tensions of the Cold War escalated until the Soviet forces implemented the [[Berlin Blockade]] of the city's western sectors, which the Western allies relieved with the dramatic [[Berlin Airlift|airlift]]. Afterward, the sectors controlled by the [[NATO]] Allies became an effective [[exclave]] of [[West Germany]], completely surrounded by East Germany. Starting in 1952, the border between East and West was closed everywhere but in Berlin. Hundreds of thousands of East Germans [[defection|defected]] to the West via West Berlin, a labour drain that threatened East Germany with economic collapse.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.kltv.com/2019/11/04/understanding-wall-how-berlin-wall-divided-nation/#:~:text=Germany%20was%20divided%20into%20four,administration%20of%20the%20respective%20zone.| title = Understanding the Wall: How the Berlin Wall divided a nation| date = November 10, 2019| access-date = September 29, 2021| archive-date = October 25, 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211025094213/https://www.kltv.com/2019/11/04/understanding-wall-how-berlin-wall-divided-nation/#:~:text=Germany%20was%20divided%20into%20four,administration%20of%20the%20respective%20zone.| url-status = live}}</ref>

In 1961, the East German government under [[Walter Ulbricht]] erected a barbed-wire barrier around West Berlin, officially called the ''antifaschistischer Schutzwall'' ([[anti-fascism|anti-fascist]] protective barrier). The East German authorities argued that it was meant to prevent spies and agents of West Germany from crossing into the East. However, it was universally known as the [[Berlin Wall]] and its main purpose was to keep East German citizens from escaping to the West. Over a period of months the wall was rebuilt using concrete, and buildings were demolished to create a "death zone" in view of East German guards armed with machine guns. The Wall closed the biggest loophole in the Iron Curtain, and Berlin went from being one of the easiest places to cross from East Europe to West Europe to being one of the most difficult.<ref>Keeling, Drew (2014), [http://www.business-of-migration.com/migration-processes/other-regions/berlin-wall-and-migration/ "Berlin Wall and Migration," ''Migration as a travel business''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225032330/https://www.business-of-migration.com/migration-processes/other-regions/berlin-wall-and-migration/ |date=February 25, 2021 }}</ref>

The West, including the U.S., was accused of failing to respond forcefully to the erection of the Wall. Officially, Berlin was under joint occupation by the four allied powers, each with primary responsibility for a certain zone. Kennedy's speech marked the first instance where the U.S. acknowledged that [[East Berlin]] was part of the [[Eastern bloc|Soviet bloc]] along with the rest of East Germany. On July 25, 1961, Kennedy insisted in a presidential address that the U.S. would defend West Berlin, asserting its [[Potsdam Agreement|Four-Power rights]], while making it clear that challenging the Soviet presence in Germany was not possible.