The Story of Henri Tod (30 page)

It was dark by the time the coffee was served, and the chatter was everywhere, like the sound of crickets. Suddenly the President lifted the glass of white wine that sat in front of him, which he had not touched during the meal. He caught the eye of the Director and said, in a voice so quiet as to stress the privacy of the communication:

“Let's drink to Rheingold.”

The Director raised his glass in acknowledgment.

“Too bad,” the President added, putting down his glass.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to the studies of several authors and historians whose books helped me greatly with the factual material. They include
The Ides of August
, by Curtis Cate;
Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis
, by Honoré M. Catudal;
The Wall: A Tragedy in Three Acts
, by Eleanor Dulles;
A Thousand Days
, by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.; and
Khrushchev Remembers
, by Nikita Khrushchev or whoever else wrote the book, a controversy I wish to be left out of. Some liberties have been taken with the chronology, but not many. I must mention the joy of word-processing on my Kaypro II.

I gave the manuscript to my family, friends, and colleagues. To my wife Patricia, son Christopher, sister Priscilla, and brother Reid. To Charles Wallen, Jr., Thomas Wendel, Sophie Wilkins, Marvin Liebman, and my agent, Lois Wallace. To my colleagues Frances Bronson, Dorothy McCartney, and Susan Stark. To Chaucy Bennetts my thanks for her splendid work, as also to Joseph Isola, as ever. Dorothy McCartney, my researcher, relied heavily on the generosity of Ingeborg Godenschweger of the German Information Center, who knows so much about Berlin she might have founded it.

To them all, for advice, correction, encouragement, research, proofreading, and typing, I am profoundly grateful. I must especially acknowledge the work of my old friend Sam Vaughan, and my new friend Kate Medina. Their editorial suggestions were superb, their patience and good cheer exemplary.

And finally, in connection with my stay in Berlin, I owe thanks to Nona Oeynhausen, to Dr. Otto and Mari Ann von Simson, to Mr. Ernest Nagy of the American Embassy in West Berlin, and to Ambassador Rozanne L. Ridgeway in East Berlin and her colleague Günther Rosinus, the press and cultural attaché. Fine counselors, friends, and cicerones.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1983, 1984 by William F. Buckley, Jr.

Cover design by Barbara Brown

Cover illustration by Karl Kotas

ISBN: 978-1-5040-1853-1

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