Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khruschev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth Paperback – 7 Jun 2012

Review

Fast-paced, dramatic ... a great story. Both an enriching history and a rollicking good read (Washington Post)

Fascinating ... A fine example of intelligent popular history. In concentrating on the clash between JFK and Krushchev, he does not crudely personalise the conflict. Rather he uses the differing ... situations of these two extraordinary men to strip away appearances and reveal the power realities (Frederick Taylor Financial Times)

Kempe ... has taken on a monumental task and succeeded. The story-telling is masterful, both entertaining and elucidating. The story itself is one to provoke grievance and fury across generations (Washington Independent Review of Books)

[A] mind-shaking work of investigative history (Wall Street Journal)

History at its best. Kempe's book masterfully dissects the Cold War's strategically most significant East-West confrontation, and in the process significantly enlightens our understanding of the complexity of the Cold War itself (Zbigniew Brzezinski (National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter))

The genius at the heart of this gripping work resembles that of a play by Schiller or Shakespeare (Financial Times)

Well researched and lucidly written. What interests [Kempe] is not really Berlin but Washington and Moscow; we learn ... a great deal about the machinations of the two superpowers (Dominic Sandbrook Sunday Times)

Berlin 1961 is a page-turner, written with all the vigour and verve of a spy novel, so you will have difficulty in putting it down until you have finished its 500 pages of gripping narrative (International Affairs)

A gripping, well-researched, and thought-provoking book with many lessons for today (Henry Kissinger)

Kempe has masterfully captured the dramatic dimensions of a great story that shaped the world order for twenty-eight years. Berlin 1961 is an important achievement (Chuck Hagel)

An amazing drama ... Kempe's compelling narrative is a triumph of great writing and research (Walter Isaacson (President and CEO, The Aspen Institute))

Engaging, richly researched, thought-provoking ... combines the 'You are there' storytelling skills of a journalist, the analytical skills of the political scientist, and the historian's use of declassified U.S., Soviet, and German documents to provide unique insight into the forces and individuals behind these events (General Brent Scowcroft (National Security Advisor to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush))

Kempe's compelling narrative, astute analysis, and meticulous research bring fresh insight into a crucial and perilous episode of the Cold War, bringing Kennedy and Khrushchev to life as they square off at the brink of nuclear war. His masterly telling of a scary and cautionary tale from half a century ago has the immediacy of today's headlines (Strobe Talbott (President, Brookings Institution))

Takes us to Ground Zero of the Cold War. Reading these pages, you feel as if you are standing at Checkpoint Charlie, amid the brutal tension of a divided Berlin (David Ignatius)

About the Author

Frederick Kempe is president and CEO of the Atlantic Council. He previously spent more than twenty-five years as a reporter, columnist and editor for The Wall Street Journal, where he served as chief diplomatic correspondent, Berlin bureau chief and editor and associate publisher of the Journal's Europe edition. His previous three books are Divorcing the Dictator: America's Bungled Affair with Noriega, Siberian Odyssey: A Voyage into the Russian Soul and Father/Land: A Personal Search for the New Germany. He lives in Washington, D.C.