W.R. Smyser, U.S. diplomat turned historian of postwar Germany, dies at 86

Germany exerted a magnetic pull on Dr. Smyser, who spent time in the country as a young man, served there in the Army, held diplomatic postings in Berlin and Bonn, and eventually wrote one of the first comprehensive accounts of its political evolution after World War II — “From Yalta to Berlin: The Cold War Struggle Over Germany.”