While much is said about the autocratic tyranny of the communist regimes, its equally interesting to note that the capitalist systems led by the US throughout the cold war had an inherent flaw that its leaders were significantly at odds and one sign of weakness had significant ramifications on the balance between the two sides. This book brings to light an important passage in the story of the cold war and it definitely was game set and match to the communist world.
The stage is set with the election of Kennedy to the all important role of the leader of the west in the cold war and Khruschev in his role welcomes this as a much improved alternative to Nixon who lost the vote by a whisker. Kennedy in a short span reveals a weak mind, lacking the courage to make critical judgements. The Bay of Pigs which was a legacy of the Eisenhower planning team was ill executed and left the US shamefaced in its dealings, with Kennedy's fingerprints writ all over the disaster. Khruschev who gingerly sought to placate a US president backed it up with upping the ante on Berlin and also sending in the first man into space. Round 1 Khruschev. Following this was the Vienna summit (the choice of which was an ill-advised one as compared to Stockholm) where Kennedy bore the brunt of a rather belligerent Khruschev, Round 2 Khruschev. The setback proved a bit too much for Kennedy who spent much of 1961 licking his wounds while the East Germany leveraged this to the fullest and erected the Berlin wall which came to represent the repression and tyranny of the communist system.
The book is packed with details and remarkable characters and seems to be a product of enormous research. But the story is narrated in a manner which makes the book fairly unputdownable. While Kennedy pretty much steamrolls his allies and displays considerable mistrust towards Konrad Adenauer who helmed the affairs for the West Germans, Khrisuchev pretty much hid the internal badgering that he was subjected to from his allies like the Chinese and the Romanians who believed he had sold out to the West. The villain of the piece (if we permit such characterizations) is quite clearly Walter Ulbricht who headed the East German Requblic, he quietly nagged and cheered Khruschev, egging him on to stem the rush of refugees from the East to the West and finally single handedly manipulating the creation of the Berlin Wall.
While the Cuban missile crisis and the Berlin speech by Kennedy do much to redeem his presidency's handling of the communist threat, the reader still is left with little sympathy for him. While he may have been one of the most popular presidents in US history, his handling of the Berlin crisis sentenced a few millions to a 28 year jail sentence into a system they hated. There are no clear heroes in history
The stage is set with the election of Kennedy to the all important role of the leader of the west in the cold war and Khruschev in his role welcomes this as a much improved alternative to Nixon who lost the vote by a whisker. Kennedy in a short span reveals a weak mind, lacking the courage to make critical judgements. The Bay of Pigs which was a legacy of the Eisenhower planning team was ill executed and left the US shamefaced in its dealings, with Kennedy's fingerprints writ all over the disaster. Khruschev who gingerly sought to placate a US president backed it up with upping the ante on Berlin and also sending in the first man into space. Round 1 Khruschev. Following this was the Vienna summit (the choice of which was an ill-advised one as compared to Stockholm) where Kennedy bore the brunt of a rather belligerent Khruschev, Round 2 Khruschev. The setback proved a bit too much for Kennedy who spent much of 1961 licking his wounds while the East Germany leveraged this to the fullest and erected the Berlin wall which came to represent the repression and tyranny of the communist system.
The book is packed with details and remarkable characters and seems to be a product of enormous research. But the story is narrated in a manner which makes the book fairly unputdownable. While Kennedy pretty much steamrolls his allies and displays considerable mistrust towards Konrad Adenauer who helmed the affairs for the West Germans, Khrisuchev pretty much hid the internal badgering that he was subjected to from his allies like the Chinese and the Romanians who believed he had sold out to the West. The villain of the piece (if we permit such characterizations) is quite clearly Walter Ulbricht who headed the East German Requblic, he quietly nagged and cheered Khruschev, egging him on to stem the rush of refugees from the East to the West and finally single handedly manipulating the creation of the Berlin Wall.
While the Cuban missile crisis and the Berlin speech by Kennedy do much to redeem his presidency's handling of the communist threat, the reader still is left with little sympathy for him. While he may have been one of the most popular presidents in US history, his handling of the Berlin crisis sentenced a few millions to a 28 year jail sentence into a system they hated. There are no clear heroes in history
1 comments:
Great post thank you :)
Post a Comment