For half of the twentieth century, the Cold War gripped the world.
International relations everywhere--and domestic policy in scores
of nations--pivoted around this central point, the American-Soviet
rivalry. Even today, much of the world's diplomacy grapples with
chaos created by the Cold War's sudden disappearance. Here indeed
is a subject that defies easy understanding. Now comes a definitive
account, a startlingly fresh, clear eyed, comprehensive history of
our century's longest struggle.
In The Cold War, Ronald E. Powaski offers a new perspective on the
great rivalry, even as he provides a coherent, concise narrative.
He wastes no time in challenging the reader to think of the Cold
War in new ways, arguing that the roots of the conflict are
centuries old, going back to Czarist Russia and to the very infancy
of the American nation. He shows that both Russia and America were
expansionist nations with messianic complexes, and the people of
both nations believed they possessed a unique mission in history.
Except for a brief interval in 1917, Americans perceived the
Russian government (whether Czarist or Bolshevik) as despotic;
Russians saw the United States as conspiring to prevent it from
reaching its place in the sun. U.S. military intervention in
Russia's civil war, with the aim of overthrowing Lenin's upstart
regime, entrenched Moscow's fears. Soviet American relations,
difficult before World War II--when both nations were relatively
weak militarily and isolated from world affairs--escalated
dramatically after both nations emerged as the world's major
military powers. Powaski paints a portrait of the spiraling
tensions with stark clarity, as each new development added to the
rivalry: the Marshall Plan, the communist coup in Czechoslovakia,
the Berlin blockade, the formation of NATO, the first Soviet
nuclear test. In this atmosphere, Truman found it easy to believe
that the Communist victory in China and the Korean War were
products of Soviet expansionism. He and his successors extended
their own web of mutual defense treaties, covert actions, and
military interventions across the globe--from the Caribbean to the
Middle East and, finally to Southeast Asia, where containment
famously foundered in the bog of Vietnam.
Powaski skillfully highlights the domestic politics, diplomatic
maneuvers, and even psychological factors as he untangles the knot
that bound the two superpowers together in conflict. From the
nuclear arms race, to the impact of U.S. recognition of China on
detente, to Brezhnev's inflexible persistence in competing with
America everywhere, he casts new light on familiar topics. Always
judicious in his assessments, Powaski gives due credit to Reagan
and especially Bush in facilitating the Soviet collapse, but also
notes that internal economic failure, not outside pressure, proved
decisive in the Communist failure. Perhaps most important, he
offers a clear eyed assessment of the lasting distortions the
struggle wrought upon American institutions, raising questions
about whether anyone really won the Cold War. With clarity,
fairness, and insight, he offers the definitive account of our
century's longest international rivalry.
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