Flowers for Tanks

Two weeks ago, the intersection at Berlin's "Checkpoint Charlie" was taut with tension as the U.S.--on order from General Lucius Clay, President Kennedy's representative in West Berlin--sent armed convoys across the border to escort civilian-dressed military personnel into the Russian sector to demonstrate U.S. right of access. But last week, on direct orders from the State Department, the probes were called off. At the same time, Washington stopped U.S. patrols along the 110-mile Autobahn that links West Germany with the divided city. Reason: Secretary of State Dean Rusk was anxious to shift the Berlin issue away from border squabbles to the negotiating table. The Soviets displayed no similar inclination.

But the Sitzkrieg at Checkpoint Charlie still performed a function: in a remarkable way it showed the world how Berlin really felt. One day last week, an elderly woman in a tattered grey coat faced a G.I. bundled on his armored personnel carrier, held out three fresh pink carnations, murmured in German, "I brought you some different colors today; God bless you!" Understanding the sentiment if not the words, the young soldier accepted the flowers with a grin, muttered "Danke schoen" proudly stuffed them in the perforated barrel cooler of his 20-mm. cannon. Farther up the street a pack of M48 "Patton" tanks were demurely decorated by jars of bright red asters and daisies perched on their armor.

In the Russian sector, the situation was exactly the opposite. East German police began fitting iron bars across sewer tunnels to block one of the few remaining routes to freedom.

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