What was the Cold War, and are we on the verge of another, or worse?

I was born amidst the Nazi V-1 and V-2 raids on London and Croydon, England, during WWII. My mother, father and I survived that worldwide conflict and settled in Montreal, Canada, in 1945. That year saw the end of one war and the beginning of another: the Cold War between old Allies in the Eastern and Western Blocs, between Communism and Capitalism.

Two of the first to recognize the dangers of that new conflict were the authors and survivors of WWII George Orwell and Winston Churchill. Orwell used the term, Cold War, in an essay in October 1945. Churchill coined the Iron Curtain as the physical boundary between the two sides, or Blocs, of the Cold War in a 5 March 1946 speech in the US. I was a child during the first 'Proxy War' of the conflict between communist North Korea. China and the Soviet Union backed the Communist North. The United Nations, the US, and the Western Allies, supported Capitalist South Korea from 1950 to 1953.

By 1961, when I joined the Royal Canadian Navy as a sonarman to find Soviet submarines, and John F. Kennedy became President of the United States. Nikita Khrushchev was the Soviet premier, and Fidel Castro was the Cuban premier. The Cold War was in full swing with those leaders in command. I was immediately thrown into my new role on a NATO exercise off Gibraltar, among others. However, the war and my new occupation reached their pinnacle during the Cuban Missile Crisis on the Grand Banks in October 1962. What would this war's outcome be? Would Kennedy, Khrushchev, Castro, and I survive, and would the Cold War increase the dangers to a world otherwise at peace?

This 4th book of The Rutherford Chronicles relates the author's personal experiences with the last major crisis of the 20th Century. He searched for Soviet submarines during the Cuban Missile Crisis and for America's most advanced US Atomic Submarine. He saw a divided Germany and the Berlin Wall. He witnessed the fight against Apartheid and the formation of Nelson Mandela's government in South Africa. Finally, he witnessed the collapse of the USSR, and the end of the Cold War and the mighty British Empire.

Are we in danger of a similar conflict today, or worse, WW3?

Michael Bergen was born in England and grew up in Canada, though he has lived in Europe and South Africa for most of his adult life, and it was here that The Rutherford Chronicles first sprang to life.

History was always Michael's first love and sparked an interest in his own family heritage. This led, following meticulous research, directly to his writing of The Rutherford Chronicles, a series of four books based on the lives of his ancestors, their friends and families and the broader world in the turbulent years of the early to mid 20th century, and culminating in the final novel, based on his own experiences during the Cold War of the second half of that century.

The Rutherford Chronicles follow the lives of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and events controlled by their much better known and more powerful contemporaries on all sides of the conflicts, many of whom are referenced within the pages of the books.

Part 1, Empire Discovered, begins during the Second Anglo-Boer War in South Africa and continues into British India. Reedsy reviewer Pixie Emsley says "An absorbing and unusual look at the Anglo Boer War, one of Britain's costliest in terms of money and men, as well as women and children."

Part 2, Empire and War, takes place in the trenches and German POW camps in WWI. Reedsy reviewer Pixie Emsley says "A revealing insight into Britain's involvement in World War I told from the viewpoint of a prisoner of war, with all the horrors of war."

Part 3, Empire and Tyranny, is about the interwar years following WWI, including the tragic times of the Great Depression. It is also the story of WWII through the eyes of a soldier of the Royal Canadian Artillery in England, Scotland and Italy and his marriage with a Rutherford daughter.

The last book, Part 4, Empires Lost, follows events during the Cold War, based on Michael's own experiences during the later half of the 20th century.