When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, I was only three years old. The Cold War and the Berlin Wall are both outside my political frame of reference - too recent to really have found their way into my history reading, but too far back for me to even remember. Review: Berlin 1961 is outside my normal nonfiction reading and, to be honest, if it hadn’t made the nonfiction short list for the Indie Lit Awards, I probably never would have read it. One mistake, one nervous soldier, one overzealous commander-and the tripwire would be sprung for a war that could go nuclear in a heartbeat. Then two months later, and for the first time in history, American and Soviet fighting men and tanks stood arrayed against each other, only yards apart. It was in that hot summer that the Berlin Wall was constructed, which would divide the world for another twenty-eight years.
Summary ( Source): In June 1961, Nikita Khrushchev called Berlin “the most dangerous place on earth.” He knew what he was talking about. Much has been written about the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later, but the Berlin Crisis of 1961 was more decisive in shaping the Cold War-and more perilous. Title: Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on EarthĪcquired: From the publisher as part of the Indie Lit Awards
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