Dear Mr. Cherny,
I knew the ending and yet I could not put your book down. I've watched PBS specials on the Airlift but they didn't communicate the abject destruction within Berlin; I felt like I could see it. Your description of the suffering of the people was likewise remarkable. The politics going on behind the scenes is much as it is today; just the players have changed.
I'm 56 and a baby boomer and Jewish. Growing up in the 50's, I listened to my parents and relatives who lived about what the Germans had done. I remember my Jewish friends and I discussing what we would do if could have captured Hitler or any of his henchmen.
It must have been difficult for these pilots who lost friends to the Germans and to the people at home in America who lost loved ones to have any desire whatsoever to help the Germans.
And yet, that's what Americans do. Help people. Even ones who hate them.
Despite the cynicism in the press and some of the public about America today, your book reinvigorates my faith in America. I know if we are allowed to drop supplies in Burma, we will. If somehow, we are allowed to help in Darfur, we will.
The book filled in the gaps in my historical knowledge but also bolstered my faith in the warmth of Americans.
--Curt, Fair Lawn, NJ
Dear Curt,
Part of what made writing this book such a joy was that over the past four years I got daily reminders of what America can be at its best. When the news was filled with tales from Abu Ghraib and of torture, I was able to be unearthing the forgotten story of when we were doing the right things in the world. When polls were being released showing that respect and admiration for America in other countries was at a low ebb, I was writing about when America was beloved and seen by other peoples as a force for decency, humanity, and justice. When we lost too much of a great American city because of incompetence during Katrina, I had this tale from when we were a "can do" country that figured out how to feed and suuply one of the largest cities on earth completely by air for a year with the most meager of resources.
I came away from this work of history convinced that this is still who we are at our core as a country. As you know from reading this book, this is no hagiography. The characters in this book are all imperfect people who make their share of mistakes. But that to me was what was so reassuring. Because if they can figure their way out of the brink of a catastrophic World War III, then surely we can again become America at its best today.
-- Andrei