A wonderful review of my new book, Berlin 1961, in today’s Wall Street Journal by the acclaimed spy novelist Charles McCarry, whose storied career includes stints as a journalist, speechwriter for President Eisenhower, deep cover CIA officer, magazine editor, and collaborator on Alexander Haig’s autobiography.
The lede is masterful:
Readers skeptical of the Camelot myth may experience twinges of schadenfreude while reading this meticulously researched, elegantly written account of John F. Kennedy’s mortifying encounters with the Soviet Union’s Nikita Khrushchev during the first year of his presidency. Others, on coming to the end of Frederick Kempe’s molecule-by-molecule deconstruction of the Kennedy reputation for toughness, vigor, smarts and unshakable cool, are more likely to breathe a sigh of relief that civilization somehow survived the confrontation.
He goes on to describe the book as a "mind-shaking work of investigative history."
Fred Kempe is president and CEO of the Atlantic Council. His latest book, Berlin 1961, was published May 10.
Image: Wall-Street-Journal-top.jpg