ebooks Unequal Sisters: An Inclusive Reader in U.S. Women's History; 4th Edition by From Vicki Ruiz in History

Description

In June 1961; Nikita Khrushchev called Berlin "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. It was in that hot summer that the Berlin Wall was constructed; which would divide the world for another twenty-eight years. Then two months later; and for the first time in history; American and Soviet fighting men and tanks stood arrayed against each other; only yards apart. One mistake; one nervous soldier; one overzealous commander-and the tripwire would be sprung for a war that could go nuclear in a heartbeat.On one side was a young; untested U.S. president still reeling from the Bay of Pigs disaster and a humiliating summit meeting that left him grasping for ways to respond. It would add up to be one of the worst first-year foreign policy performances of any modern president. On the other side; a Soviet premier hemmed in by the Chinese; East Germans; and hardliners in his own government. With an all-important Party Congress approaching; he knew Berlin meant the difference not only for the Kremlin's hold on its empire-but for his own hold on the Kremlin.Neither man really understood the other; both tried cynically to manipulate events. And so; week by week; they crept closer to the brink.Based on a wealth of new documents and interviews; filled with fresh-sometimes startling-insights; written with immediacy and drama; Berlin 1961 is an extraordinary look at key events of the twentieth century; with powerful applications to these early years of the twenty-first.Includes photographs