Krishna
This, as you can see, is the book that describes the Cold War issues faced by Kennedy related to Germany, and tracks the events leading up to the crisis and its denouement.
The start of the book is very good – American and Soviet tanks facing each other less than 100 m apart, across the dividing line between East and West Berlin, watched by Berliners. Tensions so high that deliberately or even inadvertently, a war can be started at any moment between the two superpowers of the world, US and the USSR.
In tracking the events, the author does not pull punches. He describes Kennedy’s unsure, indecisive beginnings as a President, and that surely makes for an interesting reading. The background on the other leader in the story, Gorbachev, is also excellent, especially where he shows brinkmanship and reckless threats to the US ambassador when entirely inebriated and the smooth transition to calm friendliness later.
There are other revelations that you may not know about those times. These include descriptions on the the closeness that West German ambassador Kroll feels towards Russia rather than to the US; Ulbricht, the East German lead, who was accusing Russia of not defending its interests adequately. These are the things that makes this book eminently readable, even though you on a broad scale know about the Berlin crisis and how it was resolved – and also why the Berlin Wall was built over severe objections from the Western powers and why US did not do anything significant from the wall going up.
We learn a lot more things in the course of the book. For instance, Stalin’s dreaded assistant Beria was overthrown and killed by Khuruschev’s machinations.
The Soviets tried to exert backdoor influence to get Kennedy elected rather than Nixon because in their eyes, he would be more pliable and can be managed. We learn, even though we knew it in a broad way, the details of the enmity and hatred between Mao and Khuruschev.
Ulbrecht of East Germany defying Khuruschev and creating trouble for him, and the intrigues that Khuruschev had to deal with, are also very gripping.
Ubrecht with his shortness (5 feet four) crumpled shirts and ties, and his high pitched voice due to childhood diphtheria with all the diffidence that goes with it, turned out to be a very powerful leader who even made the giant Soviet Union dance to his tunes at times (when it came to German affairs). Stalin short too, pock marked, limped, and had a crippled left arm. (I did not know that) Ulbrecht out-Stalin’ed Stalin in East Germany in his ruthlessness and defiance.
Adnauer, the chancellor of West Germany liked to nap naked during midday like Churchill did. (Of course you go ‘Wait, what? Churchill liked that too?’)
Kennedy got Germany situation wrong repeatedly and also favoured, in the elections, an opposition politician over Adenauer. The one he supported wanted compromise with the Soviets! Go figure.
Willy Brandt was born Herbert Frahm, was the illegitimate son of a shop assistant. His Social Democrats were neutral towards US and Soviets. In the light of his later legendary status as the Chancellor of West Germany, this neutrality seems outright bizarre.
Yuri Gagarin was in space because the original cosmonaut died in training and his launch was advanced to beat the Americans against the advice of the group involved in safety training.
And on successful return, Khuruschev promoted him two ranks up to Major. If you don’t die in a foolhardy mission, you are rewarded.
We learn that Khuruschev ran rings around the inexperienced and unsure John F Kennedy. He seemed to play hardball with a hesitant, almost apologetically supplicant Kennedy at Vienna. Kennedy is hoodwinked into having Robert Kennedy talk to a Soviet spy who has the ear of Khruschev. While the Soviets know all about it, American agencies like the CIA or FBI have no clue on what the president’s current thinking was.
We learn that the Kennedy image too all was false. He was not healthy, was taking questionable medical compounds, suffered from a severely bad back, and was doped most of the time! Even his angelic wife was a prop as he was a man hooked on serial adultery. (And of course, we knew this part now, with the Marylyn Monroe and other affairs coming to light).
Khruschev building the fence is a relief to Kennedy who knew he cannot face the army at this stage of preparedness and did not want war. Willy Brandt, the illegitimate son who changed his surname, is contesting against Adnauer in the West German poll for chancellor, trying to move his Social Democrats to the centre from extreme left wing position.
Kennedy’s “so what?” response to the building of the wall shocked West Germany!
Kennedy was so into women that some days he did not work at all. And his agents had to alert him if they noticed the sudden arrival of his wife. On top of all this, there was a security threat angle, since the women brought in were not allowed to be security checked by the President’s personal guards.
Political calculations said that a nuclear attack is not so bad since it had only 500 thousand casualties instead of several million in a ‘compassionate’ nuclear scenario!
Epilogue contains some interesting analysis on whether Cuban Missile crisis could have been fully avoided if Kennedy had shown some backbone in the Berlin crisis but contains a lot of repetition from the book’s main section to read like a synopsis of the whole book sometimes.
The final surprise is when we learn that Castro was not considered communist in 1961? Wow!
Did Kennedy say that “I am a jelly doughnut” in German when he meant to say “I am a Berliner” in his stirring speech in front of the wall? That is what is alleged.
I know that this is a lot of trivia – surprising ones at that – instead of the story but the story is one of the escalating tensions in the border between the two super powers and the possibility of a conflagration, avoided by the building of the wall. The west appears weaker and indecisive, and the Soviet Union bullying and taking crazy chances with their brinkmanship. Well told story, nice narrative style, and great research. Definitely worth a read.
If you see parallels in today’s situation with Putin, that is something that you see.
I would give this book a 8/10
– – Krishna