Checkmate in Berlin: The Cold War Showdown That Shaped the Modern World

Books

The lively, immersive story of the race to seize Berlin in the aftermath of World War II that fired the starting gun for the Cold War, by the internationally bestselling master of popular history Giles Milton. Berlin's fate was sealed at the 1945 Yalta Conference: the city, along with the rest of Germany, was to be carved up between the victorious powers-American, British, French, and Soviet. On paper, it seemed a pragmatic solution. In reality, now that the four powers were no longer united by the common purpose of defeating Germany, they wasted little time reverting to their pre-war hostility toward and suspicion of each other. The veneer of civility between Allies and Soviets was to break down in spectacular fashion. Rival systems, rival ideologies, and rival personalities ensured that Berlin became an explosive battleground. The warring leaders who ran the zones that Berlin and Germany were divided into were charismatic, mercurial, larger-than-life men you'd sooner expect to find in a Quentin ...