Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Krushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on EarthRead about the other books on the list.
by Frederick Kempe
The tension was palpable: American and Soviet troops stood poised to engage. A young President Kennedy, the Bay of Pigs debacle still fresh in his mind, dared a beleaguered Krushchev to blink. These were the perilous days of Berlin in 1961, when the world was poised on the brink of nuclear war. Kempe, a former Wall Street Journal Berlin bureau chief, paints nuanced portraits of both leaders, chronicles the events that led to the construction of the Berlin Wall, and comes to some surprising conclusions about who won this early Cold War skirmish.
Also see--Five best forgotten Cold War thrillers, Five best windows on the Cold War, Five best books about Cold War culture, and Five best Cold War classics.
--Marshal Zeringue
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