A Sweet Read About the Cold War

As may be evident from earlier posts, I love narrative history, and I read part or all of as many as 100 books each year. So it's saying something to reveal that my favorite book of all those I read in 2008 was The Candy Bombers.

Three years after the end of World War II, the American occupation of Germany was failing. The Germans were becoming less--not more--attracted to democracy. Communism was on the march, overthrowing one government after another. Faith in America was at a low ebb. Then, intent on furthering its domination of Europe, the Soviet Union cut off all land and sea access to West Berlin, prepared to starve one of the largest cities in the world into submission unless the Americans abandoned it. Soviet forces hugely outnumbered those of the Allies.

The choices before the western allies seemed to be limited to just three:

1. Abandon the city to the Russians;
2. Allow the Berliners (our recent enemies) to starve; or
3. Start World War III.

Andrei Cherny’s book is a gripping, suspenseful story about how the United States struggled to help the citizens of West Berlin survive Soviet tyranny. Cherny succeeds in making the harrowing days of 1948-49 in Berlin come alive through an exhaustive, often absorbing and lucid account.

For those who were born subsequent the end of the Cold War, it may be hard to appreciate that the period was every bit as tense as the days after 9/11. In response to terror, Harry Truman, Gail Halvorsen and the other characters in this book defined how a great nation could act as a benevolent world power standing up for freedom. Cherny has produced a book that lives up to what many consider to have been the American moment in history.

This book should be required reading for every American citizen.