KWB-FB – Book: The Berlin Crisis 1958-1962 by Jack M. Schick

“When I go to sleep at night I try not to think about Berlin,” said Dean Rusk; and in this first comprehensive reconstruction of that crucial period, Jack Schick demonstrates that Rusk’s nightmare has never ended. He traces the East-West pattern of impatient negotiation followed by military posturing and pressuring. He sheds new light on Dulles’ intellectualized diplomacy, Kennedy’s cautiously balanced Berlin strategy, and Ulbricht’s urgent gamble on the Berlin Wall. Against a detailed background of diplomatic verbiage and tension-ridden events he points up the blind convictions and dangerous misunderstandings on both sides that inevitably lead to each incident in the continual crisis – and ultimately brought us to the impasse that still remains, “frozen in splendid ambiguity.”

The impasse remains – and Berlin could erupt tomorrow, its fragile armistice shattered by the merest trifle. Now the pattern of the early 1960’s is repeating itself, with East and West squaring off for new rounds of negotiation-posturing-pressure. The frightening lessons of the past, as Mr. Schick presents them, have become the vital warnings of the present, as well as the future; and our ultimate survival will depend upon our abilty to heed these warnings.

“…clearly the best book yet on the Berlin problem.” – Glenn H. Snyder

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Date:
September 7, 2025
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