On the other side of the world from Hanoi, Soviet jets also sped across the skies. Only 500 feet above the rooftops of West Berlin whooshed dozens of supersonic MIGs. They fired salvos of blanks from their cannon, shattered the sound barrier once every seven minutes, shook windows, walls, nerves and eardrums all over town.
The "Ivans" dived lowest over West Berlin's sleek Congress Hall, nicknamed "the pregnant oyster," where West Germany's Bundestag was sitting in a one-day symbolic session. With the acquiescence of the three Western allies that still retain occupation...