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Drawing the Line: The American Decision to Divide Germany, 1944-1949

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This is a book all Americans should read, but probably won't. Although stylistically undistinguished, it tells a vitally important story about the origins of the cold war. Few criticisms of the Soviet Union's diplomacy are more damning than the way it imposed dictatorship in Eastern Europe. What Eisenberg's book suggests however, is that the partition of Germany was not the result of Stalinist bullying, but American preference for it over a neutral social democratic state. Relying on more than 70 sets of private papers and files, Eisenberg shows how the United States subtly weakened denazification, decarterlization and the American committment to ensure the war-ravaged Soviet Union its share of German reparations. Gradually they decided that economic recovery and political security required an American allied Germany even if the Soviet quarter remained a Communist dictatorship. As Ambassador Walter Bedell Smith bluntly put it "The difficulty under which we labor is that in spite of our announced position, we really do not want nor intend to accept German unification in any terms that the Russians might agree to, even though they seemed to meet most of our requirements." With Truman having only a vague idea of the real issues, the United States ignored Soviet plans for reunification, forced plans for currency reform, and refused international proposals for mediation of the Berlin Blockade crisis. The consequences of this decision were incalcuably tragic for Central Europe and the world.

If you read this book, you will understand a great deal about how the world came to be what it is today. This fine book, based on meticulous research, sets forth the reasons why the US wanted to divide Germany following the defeat of the Nazis. It reveals the hidden agenga of the US in working against a unified Germany and explains how the US was at the very least compliscent in the creation of the "Iron Curtain." One of those truly important books that all should read who are interested in world affairs.

Listen, Ms. Eisenberg, let's get the facts. There was no bullying, and it was not America that divided Germany. It was one man, and only one man, that allowed Russia to go into Berlin and divide the city even though our military should have been the military to go in. That man, a demented Roosevelt that should never have been allowed in office for four terms, acted contrary to every sensible leader's position in the U.S. To even remotely claim that America made this decision is not only not acceptable, it is untenable, and should be deeply repented of. It is my opinion that you have made this position to sell a book, and to earn dollars doing it.