Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“As time passes and the political geography of world power mutates, it is easy to forget the most fraught and dangerous crisis of the Cold War, which brought U.S. and Soviet tanks facing each other at close range. Berlin 1961 is a gripping, well-researched, and thought-provoking book with many lessons for today.”

—Dr. Henry Kissinger

“Frederick 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

“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.”

—Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter

“What an amazing drama this is! The showdown over Berlin in 1961 was the pivotal episode of the Cold War, far more important and illuminating than the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was a clash between two fascinating leaders, Kennedy and Khrushchev, whose misreading of each other holds lessons for today. Kempe’s compelling narrative is a triumph of great writing and research.”

—Walter Isaacson, president and CEO, The Aspen Institute, and author of Einstein: His Life and Universe and Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

“An engaging, richly researched, thought-provoking book that captures the drama of, and challenges the conventional wisdom regarding, one of the Cold War’s most decisive years. Frederick Kempe 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

“Fred 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, distinguished professor, Georgetown University, and U.S. senator, 1997–2009

“Berlin 1961 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, columnist, The Washington Post

“Informed… His chronology of memos and meetings dramatizes events behind closed doors…. Kempe’s history reflects balanced discernment about the creation of the Berlin Wall.”

—Booklist

“Kempe… skillfully weaves oral histories and newly declassified documents into a sweeping, exhaustive narrative…. Likely the best, most richly detailed account of the subject, this will engross serious readers of Cold War history who enjoyed W. R. Smyser’s Kennedy and the Berlin Wall but appreciate the further detail.”

—Library Journal

“Good journalistic history in the tradition of William L. Shirer and Barbara Tuchman.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“A significant contribution to our understanding of the Cold War. It also will enhance public appreciation of the role of diplomats and diplomacy, because Berlin 1961 is as eminently readable as any good ‘who done it.’”

—American Diplomacy

“An engaging study of the 1961 Khrushchev/Kennedy standoff over Berlin, presenting the drama in the journalistic, anecdotal, episode-by-episode mode…a readable narrative.”

—The Weekly Standard