Frederick Kempe, President and CEO of the Atlantic Council, Washington, DC, will discuss his book Berlin 1961 (Putnam, 2010) on Monday, September 12 at 4pm in LeCraw Auditorium. Kempe's book illuminates the Berlin Crisis, its shaping of the Cold War, and the building of the Berlin Wall 50 years ago.

Kempe is hosted on campus in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of those events by the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts' School of History, Technology, and Society, The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, and the School of Modern Languages.

In June 1961, Nikita Khrushchev called Berlin "the most dangerous place on earth." He knew what he was talking about. Though much has been written about the Cuban Missile Crisis which occured a year later, the Berlin Crisis of 1961 was more decisive in shaping the Cold War - and more perilous. For the first time in history, American and Soviet fighting men and tanks stood arrayed against each other, only yards apart. One mistake, one overzealous commander - and the trip wire would be sprung for a war that would go nuclear in a heartbeat. On one side was a young, untested U.S. president still reeling from the Bay of Pigs disaster. On the other, a Soviet premier hemmed in by the Chinese, the East Germans, and hard-liners in his own government. Neither really understood the other, both tried cynically to manipulate events. And so, week by week, the dangers grew.

The publisher of Berlin 1961, Putnam Books wrote: "Based on a wealth of new documents and interviews, and filled with fresh, sometimes startling, insights, Berlin 1961 is a masterly look at key events of the twentieth century, with powerful applications to these early years of the twenty- first. Kempe's "fresh, controversial, brilliantly written account of one of the epic dramas of the Cold War-and its lessons for today" has been widely reviewed in publications including the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Frederick Kempe is President and CEO of the Atlantic Council, Washington, DC. He spent more than twenty-five years as a reporter, columnist, and editor for The Wall Street Journal. Berlin 1961 is his fourth book. He lives in Washington, D.C.

The Book:
http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/features/berlin_1961/index.html

Frederick Kempe:
http://fredkempe.com/