{"product_id":"9780425245941-berlin-1961","title":"Berlin 1961","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e In June 1961, Nikita Khrushchev called Berlin \"the most  dangerous place on earth.\" He knew what he was talking about. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eMuch 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNeither man really understood the other, both tried cynically to  manipulate events. And so, week by week, they crept closer to the  brink.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBased on a wealth of new documents and interviews, filled with  fresh-sometimes startling-insights, written with immediacy and drama,  \u003ci\u003eBerlin 1961\u003c\/i\u003e is an extraordinary look at key events of the  twentieth century, with powerful applications to these early years of  the twenty-first.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIncludes photographs \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40868811407457,"sku":"9780425245941","price":16.01,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/stand_36480508_7104319a-390e-4e7f-be4e-3e97adb08380.jpg?v=1760008269","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9780425245941-berlin-1961","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}