'As time passes and the political geography of world power mutates, it is easy to forget the most fraught and dangerous crisis of the Cold War, which brought U.S. and Soviet tanks facing each other at close range.  Berlin 1961 is a gripping, well-researched, and thought-provoking book with many lessons for today.' - DR. HENRY KISSINGER 'Frederick Kempe's compelling narrative, astute analysis, and meticulous research bring fresh insight into a crucial and perilous episode of the Cold War, bringing Kennedy and Khrushchev to life as they square off at the brink of nuclear war.  His masterly telling of a scary and cautionary tale from half a century ago has the immediacy of today's headlines.' - STROBE TALBOTT President, Brooking Institution In June 1961, Nikita Khrushchev called it '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.  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 trip wire 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.  On the other, a Soviet premier hemmed in by the Chinese, the East Germans, and hard-liners in his own government.  With an all-important Party Congress approaching, her 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.