Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

British publisher and historian MacGregor (To Hell on a Bike) delivers a colorful, kaleidoscopic history of the Berlin Wall from the perspectives of soldiers, military police, journalists, spies, and citizens from England, America, and West and East Germany. Highlights include the story of a top-secret American special forces unit stationed in West Berlin and tasked with sabotaging the Soviet army in case of invasion; in such a scenario, the soldiers’ life expectancy was estimated to be 72 hours. MacGregor also unearths little-known facts, including the average amount West Germany paid from 1961 to 1989 to ransom more than 30,000 East German political prisoners (250,000 marks, or €100,000 in today’s money), and the nickname for the area near Dresden that was the only part of East Germany without access to West German TV (“Valley of the Clueless”). The book’s strongest sections are set during and immediately after the wall’s construction and in the years leading up to its fall. MacGregor’s dramatic reconstruction of the night the wall fell features the enlightening viewpoint of Maj. Gen. Robert Corbett, commandant of Berlin’s British sector. This is a readable yet cursory account; those seeking a more comprehensive picture will find it in Frederick Taylor’s The Berlin Wall. [em]Agent: George Lucas, InkWell Management. (Nov.) [/em]