A fresh, controversial, brilliantly written account of one of the epic dramas of the Cold War-and its lessons for today.

"History at its best." -Zbigniew Brzezinski

"Gripping, well researched, and thought-provoking, with many lessons for today." -Henry Kissinger

"Captures the drama [with] the 'You are there' storytelling skills of a journalist and the analytical skills of the political scientist." - General Brent Scowcroft

In June 1961, Nikita Khrushchev called it "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. For the first time in history, American and Soviet fighting men and tanks stood arrayed against each other, only yards apart. One mistake, one overzealous commander-and the trip wire would be sprung for a war that would go nuclear in a heartbeat. On one side was a young, untested U.S. president still reeling from the Bay of Pigs disaster. On the other, a Soviet premier hemmed in by the Chinese, the East Germans, and hard-liners in his own government. Neither really understood the other, both tried cynically to manipulate events. And so, week by week, the dangers grew.

Based on a wealth of new documents and interviews, filled with fresh- sometimes startling-insights, written with immediacy and drama, Berlin 1961 is a masterly look at key events of the twentieth century, with powerful applications to these early years of the twenty- first.

[美] 弗雷德里克·肯普，大西洋理事会总裁兼首席执行官。此前在《华尔街日报》担任记者、专栏作家和编辑超过二十五年，是该报首席外交记者、驻柏林分社社长、欧洲版《华尔街日报》副社长。他之前的著作有《与独裁者分手：美国和诺列加的纷争》《西伯利亚的奥德赛：俄罗斯的心灵之旅》《父亲和祖国：新德国的私人探访记》。大西洋理事会是美国东部传统“大西洋主义者”重要的民间政策研究和协调机构，由己故前国务卿克里斯琴·赫脱和威尔·克莱顿等人发起和创建的。目前是华盛顿较为重视的对华研究的主流思想库之一。