 Home 's attention was mainly concentrated on the Cold War , where his forcefully expressed anti @-@ communist beliefs were tempered by a pragmatic approach to dealing with the Soviet Union . His first major problem in this sphere was in 1961 when on the orders of the Soviet leader , Nikita Khrushchev , the Berlin Wall was erected to stop East Germans escaping to West Germany via West Berlin . Home wrote to his American counterpart , Dean Rusk , " The prevention of East Berliners getting into West Berlin has never been a casus belli for us . We are concerned with Western access to Berlin and that is what we must maintain . " The governments of West Germany , Britain and the US quickly reached agreement on their joint negotiating position ; it remained to persuade President de Gaulle of France to align himself with the allies . During their discussions Macmillan commented that de Gaulle showed " all the rigidity of a poker without its occasional warmth . " An agreement was reached , and the allies tacitly recognised that the wall was going to remain in place . The Soviets for their part did not seek to cut off allied access to West Berlin through East German territory . 
