World: WEST BERLIN: BRACING FOR A CRISIS

EAST German guards, their tommy guns swinging jauntily at their hips, last week pulled a striped red and white barrier across the autobahn checkpoint at Helmstedt on the border between East and West Germany. Two hours later, after cars and trucks had piled up for nearly a mile, the East Germans reopened the road and the traffic flowed once more between West Berlin and West Germany. It was a chilling reminder of West Berlin's vulnerability and a portent of what may come.

Under the guise of a military maneuver, powerful East German and Soviet...

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