For the first time in modern history, a regime had to wall itself in to keep from bleeding to death. The masses of refugees that had staked their hopes on the Berlin escape route through the Iron Curtain were cut off from freedom by this wall of death erected by a Soviet puppet and tolerated by the new American president and his administration. The United States had witnessed and permitted, even conspired in, the undoing of those human rights to which it was purportedly committed. Contrary to the inaugural address of the young president, the price was not paid, the burden was not borne, the hardship was not met, the friends were not supported, and the foes were not opposed. As a result the survival and success of liberty was not only not assured; it was destroyed. This book examines the 'how' in an attempt to find out 'why.'
About the Author: John T. Burridge is a semi-retired (whatever that means) chemical engineer and technical writer who lived in Berlin during the early wall years as a scientific editor for the journal Chemisches Zentralblatt, jointly operated by the East and West German Chemists' Associations, one of the few institutions operating on both sides of the wall, as well as a 'stringer' correspondent for the Oakland Tribune. As a non-German he was able to cross back and forth across the wall and became well acquainted with life in both East and West. He may be the only American citizen to be told of the assassination of President Kennedy by an East German Communist guard at the Berlin Wall. Having finished helping some university students who were digging a tunnel, he was heading for the subway station walking along the infamous Bernauer Strasse and had stopped at a West Berlin police post to peer over the wall while chatting with the police and some French soldiers. Just yards away across the wall, a Communist guard heard his American accent and asked if he had heard what happened to Kennedy in some place called 'Da-LASS' in his heavy Saxon accent. Burridge received his undergraduate education in Canada with degrees from Queen's University and Concordia University, and did his graduate work at California State University, Fullerton, USA, with master's degrees in German and Linguistics, including work at Kenyatta University in East Africa. He presently writes on environmental and ornithological matters, and is working on a book on the Cuban Missle Crisis-the second chapter in the relationship between Kennedy and Khrushchev.