Author(s): Iain MacGregor

History/Politics

A groundbreaking history of Checkpoint Charlie, the legendary crossing point on the border of East and West Berlin where the United States and its allies confronted the Soviet Union during the Cold War As tensions between East and West rose during the Cold War, East Germany committed millions of dollars to the creation of the Berlin Wall in the early 1960s. The eleven-foot-high barrier would eventually evolve to consist of seventy-nine miles of fencing and three hundred watchtowers and was operated around the clock by guards who shot to kill. Ten thousand people attempted to smash through it, tunnel under it, or fly over it to escape the totalitarian East German regime. In November 1989, a civil revolt culminated in half a million East Germans demanding an end to the ban on free movement. The world's media flocked to capture the moment that, perhaps more than any other, signaled the end of the Cold War. Checkpoint Charlie, the epicenter of global conflict for nearly three decades, was the location of the greatest jubilation as crowds flowed across the border. Iain MacGregor captures the mistrust, oppression, paranoia, and fear that once gripped Berlin in this brilliant work of historical journalism. He includes never-before-heard interviews with the Wall's builders and dismantlers; lovers who crossed it; soldiers who guarded its checkpoints; CIA, MI6, and Stasi operatives who oversaw secret operations across its borders; politicians whose ambitions shaped it; and many more whose living memories contributed to the full story of Checkpoint Charlie. Book jacket.