THE DEFENSE OF BERLIN.
By Jean Ed-ward Smith. Baltimore: The John HopkinsPress, 1963. 431 pp. $6.95.
Professor Smith has furnished a fascinating account of the "battle for Berlin." His detailed narrative extends from the first ultimatum which Khrushchev addressed to the Western powers in 1958 to the farewell which General Clay, Kennedy's special en- voy to the beleaguered city, addressed in the spring of 1962 to an emotional throng of Berliners. Yet in order to explain every move of all interested parties during these years, the author also presents a concise account of the preceding events: the wartime agreements regarding the occupation of Berlin; the military decision to halt at the Elbe; the grim years during which the two parts of the former capital city were forced apart; the blockade and the air-lift; and finally the years of a successful recovery, due to Western determination and the energy of the population. Even though here Professor Smith goes over ground that has been well covered by others, his gift for culling the essential information from the available material, for balancing contradictory information, and for presenting it in a sober yet crisp style makes his account exciting for the general reader as well as for the scholar.
However, the main interest of the book is in its description and analysis of the critical period which started when the Soviet Government sought to destroy once more the bastion of the free world which a vigorous and prosperous West-Berlin had become. A superb documentation is amplified by many interviews which the author conducted with highly placed personalities and by his own observations as an Army officer stationed in Berlin. When dealing with these events the author leaves no doubt as to the opinion he holds of the positions taken by the principal dramatis personae. He deplores John F. Dulles' demise, because his successor Herter never gathered the same determination in opposing Russian demands. In President Kennedy's entourage Professor Smith criticizes the proponents of a "soft line" (most of them "preoccupied with words") and sides with those that took the "hard line" in dealings with the East. The altogether brilliant account of the political and military events before and after the building of the Wall by the Soviets is interlaced with bitter complaints about Washington's and London's indecision. One might regret that the author never clearly states the alternatives to the chosen course nor their possible consequences.
The hero of the book is one Lucius Clay. And while elsewhere the author never departs from rigorous scholarship, even when he grinds an axe, he defends without questioning every act of General Clay's - the man "who symbolized American honor," the "victim of an Administration vendetta." Hagiography does not add to the value of so excellent a book.
Professor of Government
