Book description
'A mind-shaking work of investigative history' (Wall Street Journal)
Checkpoint Charlie, 27 October 1961. At 9pm on a damp night, the
Cold War reaches crisis point. US and Soviet tanks face off across the
East-West divide, only yards apart. One mistake, one nervous soldier,
could spring the tripwire for nuclear war...
Frederick Kempe's gripping book tells the story of the Cold War's
most dramatic year, when Berlin became what Khrushchev called 'the
most dangerous place on earth'. Kempe re-creates the war of nerves
between the young, untested President Kennedy and the bombastic Soviet
leader as they squared off over the future of a divided city. He
interweaves this with stories of the ordinary citizens whose lives
were torn apart when the Berlin Wall went up - and the world came to
the brink of disaster.
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.
