Important doubt about the Berlin Wall

[ComradeArthur]

Hello to all.
Here in Brazil there are tests you have to go through (Vestibular) to get in most universities. In one of these tests, an alternative states that the Berlin Wall was build with support from de United States. The answer sheet had this assertive as being correct. I asked my teacher, who I consider to be a very clarified and neutral person with regards to the capitalism-socialism dispute, and he said that the USA did NOT support the construction.
Can anyone shine me some light into this issue? I'm very unsure what to think about this right now.

Thank you very much; I'm sorry about any English mistakes: it's not my native language. ;)

[Ismail]

The Berlin Wall was built by the East German government (and lukewarmly accepted by the Soviets) to prevent the "brain drain" ("fuga de cérebros") of educated East Germans into the West, among other things. Throughout the 1950's the Americans and the West German government attempted economic sabotage in the GDR (as noted by William Blum in his book Killing Hope), so the Wall also had the effect of improving the GDR's stability.

I am moving this thread to the "Learning" forum section, since I don't feel it belongs in History.

[ComradeArthur]

Thank you, Ismail, for your reply, but you didn't actually answer my question. That the Berlin wall was build by the GDR government I already knew. My question is whether this construction did or did not have the support o the united states.

[DarkPast]

Heres what the Wikipedia article on the Berlin Crisis, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Crisis_of_1961, has to say about it:


On 4–7 August 1961, the foreign ministers of four Western countries (the United States, United Kingdom, France and West Germany) held secret consultations in Paris. The only question on the agenda was how to react to the Soviet provocations in Berlin. In the course of these meetings Western representatives expressed an understanding of the defensive nature of Soviet campaign in Germany, and unwillingness to risk a war.

and, after the stand-off between Soviet and US forces, Kennedy said:


"It's not a very nice solution, but a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war."