Greg Mitchell (1) (1947–)

The Tunnels tells the history of several escapes under the Berlin Wall and the NBC documentary The Tunnel that chronicled one of the most successful tunnel escapes. It is pure history with no fictionalized dialogue, yet it remains as suspenseful as any spy thriller, not least because it is all true.

This book is thrilling, fast-paced, and suspenseful. The action in the first chapter was so fast and furious I wondered what was left for the rest of the book. No worries, there was plenty. show more Replete with spycraft, secret couriers, Stasi spies and infiltrators, and the bold tunnelers, there is no shortage of heroes and villains.

Add the Cuban Missile Crisis, network competition, and some embarrassingly low behavior by CBS and there is suspense before, during, and well after the tunnel escapes. Thanks to pressure from the Kennedy Administration and an overly compliant and competitive press, NBC was vilified for pursuing the documentary of the tunnel escape and pressured into postponing its broadcast. It eventually did broadcast to critical and commercial success and the same government that tried to suppress it was airing it overseas as part of the USIA.

The Tunnels is a great success, not just in terms of telling an exciting, suspenseful story, but also of engaging readers emotionally. It is a reminder that we are not meant to build walls. I remember watching in awed surprise when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, sinking to my knees in front of the television and touching the screen, as though I had to touch it to believe it was real. I cried then and reading about it again in The Tunnels, I cried again. The Wall was such a disgrace, a scar on humanity and perhaps some of my tears came from acknowledging my own country’s eagerness to build a wall, another scar revealing some deep infection in our national bloodstream.

The Tunnels is also meticulously researched with data from Stasi files, Kennedy Administration recordings, personal papers, documents, declassified government files, and personal interviews. Everyone is real and so are the conversations. It is a book that proves that history does not need to fictionalized or dramatized to be fascinating and exciting.

Whether you love liberty or just love a great adventure, The Tunnels will be worth reading. It is useful to remember that liberty is something that needs to be claimed, not assumed, nor taken for granted.

I was provided a copy of The Tunnels through the Blogging For Books program.

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/11/27/the-tunnels-by-greg-mitch... show less

The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood--and America--Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb by Greg Mitchell is a fascinating read. Whether you like history or film history, or both, this book will satisfy.

In what was initially supposed to be a movie warning the citizenry about weaponizing atomic energy and starting an arms race we watch as it becomes a propaganda film that is far more fiction than nonfiction and serves to glorify what was a despicable act. As has come to light, the US show more government was in possession of Japanese telegrams and intelligence that showed that Japan was working on a surrender and was not planning further offenses. But making a political statement both domestically and to the Soviets was deemed more important than hundreds of thousands of lives, mostly women and children. Not much different from the current US government views on lives of others.

This book reads almost like a novel which leads a reader to potentially read it too fast. I would recommend slowing down and spreading it out over a couple of days so you can enjoy the details and also think about what the government intervention says about truth and democracy.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

A detailed, enthralling chronicle of a number of attempts, both successful and not, to tunnel below the Berlin wall in the early 1960s to help beleaguered East Germans escape to freedom in the west. Motivated by helping relatives, loved ones, and strangers escape, the tunnel builders in the west were basically altruistic – but some accepted help from controversial sources.

Part of the narrative is about how U.S. television news companies, notably NBC and CBS, provided funds to assist the show more tunnel builders in return for the right to film and air exclusive footage.

A third element is how the Kennedy administration suppressed, or “managed” news coverage of the tunnels, “fearing this would only exacerbate U.S.-Soviet tensions.” Piers Anderton, an NBC journalist who created one of the suppressed documentaries, was so disillusioned that years later “relegated the display of his Emmy (for the show) to the spare bathroom in his home.” Even later, “preparing to move to England with his wife, he tossed his Emmy in the trash.”

The story tells of how the inhumanity and brutality of the Soviet-aligned East German regime fueled the sacrifices many people made to help others escape. show less

Do you ever read the description and think you can handle it? Then when you pick up the book, you get an eery feeling when you read inside, "A NOTE TO READERS".

Well, this happened to me when I picked up "The Tunnels".

This is not to say that I did not find a hint of humor in the writing that at times was very graphic. I actually thought the example of Adam and Eve was going to be humorous but instead, it turned out to be a daunting reminder.

I wanted so much from this read and early on it show more hit me. I'm not 10 pages in... and yet I am having difficulty. The realization is, even when I complete this story...this compilation of accounts of the Cold War... there is not a thing I can change.

Frankly, I have never faced the inclination to escape and the only time I have seen jumpers is footage of people fleeing burning buildings. And as I read these accounts and weep, I think this was indeed a "Street of Tears".

When you pull and push dirt with purpose, to create a pathway, it's possible you may not realize how exhausting and terrifying it can be. I mean, if your purpose is to save another, perhaps it all becomes a blur and the sound of noisy tools goes unnoticed. With a gain of only 6 feet a day, promises to watch each other back and the fear of lettings others down are likely things you'd have to acknowledge.

One can only hope if ever in a position remotely similar to this that one would wait in silence and be steadfast in the knowledge that somewhere in the distance rings the bells of freedom.

Reviewed for Blogging for Books show less