From Yalta to Berlin: The Cold War Struggle Over Germany Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

From Yalta to Berlin: The Cold War Struggle Over Germany Book

"No nation's fury, no nation's fate, had a greater impact on the twentieth century" than Germany's, writes W.R. Smyser, a onetime State Department official now considered a leading expert on Germany. In this eye-opening account, Smyser suggests the question of Germany is central to understanding the cold war. The country itself lies in the heart of Europe: "If one takes a map of Europe and draws one line from Paris to Moscow and another line from Stockholm to Rome, the two lines intersect remarkably close to the Brandenburg Gate," writes Smyser, in one of his characteristically smart observations. The author has a strong grasp of the leaders who quarreled over Germany between the end of the Second World War and its unification in the 1990s, and an especially good grasp of their motives. Using new archival information, he suggests that Stalin did not in fact want a divided Germany, and that President Kennedy, for his part, had the opportunity to prevent construction of the Berlin Wall but failed to take proper action. Despite all its agonies, the Cold War did have some positive effects: "It served as the essential incubator for a modern German state" and eventually allowed this most problematic of nations to become a peaceful member of the world community. As Smyser points out; the Cold War "ended as it had to end, not on the battlefield but on the streets, in the churches, atop the Berlin Wall and in the conference room. It ended so that all could win, and did." This is a winning account of how it happened. --John J. MillerRead More

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  • Product Description

    The question of German unity was the most important and intractable problem to remain unsettled after World War II. It was also one of the least understood and, ultimately, one of the most important issues determining the political stability of the globe at the end of the twentieth century. W. R. Smyser explores "the German Question" and uses it to illustrate the story of how Germany was divided and then united against a background of global events and a continuing search for stable peace in an area that has not known it since the age of Charlemagne. Focusing on the personalities who controlled Germany's fate--FDR, Churchill, Stalin, De Gaulle, Adenauer, Kennedy, Brandt, Reagan, Bush, Gorbachev, Kohl and others--Smyser creates a masterful and engaging portrait of a country that has played a pivotal role in the history of the twentieth century.

  • 0312066058
  • 9780312066055
  • W. R. Smyser
  • 1 June 1999
  • St. Martin's Press
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 465
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