Diplomat E.A. Lightner

Edwin Allan Lightner Jr., 82, a 40-year U.S. diplomat who saw the Berlin Wall erected and took part in a Cold War prisoner exchange with the Soviet Union, died here on Saturday of congestive heart failure.

Lightner joined the Foreign Service in 1930 and served in 18 countries before retiring in 1970.

Lightner was assistant chief of the U.S. Mission in Berlin when the wall was erected in 1961. He was twice detained by East German border guards in October, 1961, when he crossed into East Berlin to underscore the United States’ determination to have unrestricted access to all occupation zones in Berlin.

Lightner also participated in the Berlin exchange of Francis Gary Powers, the American U-2 pilot shot down during a reconnaissance flight over the Soviet Union in 1960.