Twenty years ago the Berlin Wall fell and over the next few months every communist government east of it in Europe fell with it. Many thought the Cold War would end in a fireball, instead it ended in a party. It was later revealed that a third of the population were paid informants. The East German secret police (Stazi) knew everything about everyone except that their subjects wanted their freedom. They also had no sense of humor and no one wanted to hang around them. Whenever you have a long struggle, keep going and the other side will eventually lose.
Here are some books on Berlin and the Cold War.
Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB In The Cold War
By David E. Murphy, Sergei A. Kondrashev, George Bailey
I guess if we are going to be in another Cold War with the Russians we should study up on the last one. This book covers the spy versus spy shenanigans in 1950s Berlin. The advantage to having newly released classified documents is that you get a detailed picture. The disadvantage is that it is all exceedingly dull. There are long stretches of acromnyms and explanations of bureaucracy which induce drowsiness. At least John LeCarre made it interesting.
One of the authors is named George Bailey. I guess he finally left Bedford Falls.
The Hole In The Flag: By Andre Codrescu
Codrescu puts forth the proposition that a visible dictator was put down by a secret shadow government in Romania. Facsinating look into his home country.
The Cold War: A History
By Martin Walker
This book is heavy going. The United States turned itself inside out and upside down to fight a war that never happened. The Soviets collapsed because their bureaucracy was less efficient than ours. Both countries are now littered with toxic waste sites and a devasted economic base. That’s something to think about if there is going to be a second cold war.
Plan accordingly.
How We Survived Communism And Even Laughed
By Slavenka Drakulic
A collection of thoughtful essays about being a woman in the Balkans.
The Plutonium Files: America’s Secret Medical Experiments In The Cold War
By Eileen Welsome Text by DJCline.com
Your worst nightmares are true. From 1945 forward, ordinary people are poisoned in the name of questionable scientific research. Scientists, soldiers, children, cancer patients all got sick. No one knows the complete list because the government’s top secret records gave the victims numbers and took away their names. Text by DJCline.com
How much plutonium is too much? Why would anyone want this stuff around? Why would you want to make more of it? Wext by DJCline.com
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We The People: The Revolution Of ‘89
By Timothy Gartner Ash
A straightforward chronicle of the fall of communist governments from Germany to Romania.
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.