Caveat- listened to this book via Audible. As an audiobook, it does not work great. You must have an immaculate attention span and never break focus for so much as a moment, otherwise you'll be saying to yourself, "Wait, Breshnev again? I thought we'd moved on to Gorby. Damn it." ( )

Oorspronkelijke titel: The Cold War

A well-crafted history; nothing an academic would find hugely useful, but an eminently readable summary of one of the most turbulent periods in Earth's history. Gaddis has a fairly clear right-wing bias, but as long as you bear that in mind this is a useful and enjoyable book ( )

Muchos son quienes recuerdan lo que es vivir bajo la sombra de la Guerra Fría. la ansiedad ante la posibilidad de una confrontación nuclear desapareció tras la desintegración del bloque soviético; sin embargo, aún no existen preguntas y dudas que deben ser aclaradas para llenar los vacíos dejados por ese período histórico.
sólo ahora, a casi dos décadas de haber concluido el conflicto, es posible comenzar a vislumbrar una perspectiva convincente al respecto. gracias al análisis de la información obtenida de archivos de la URSS recientemente desclasificados, Gadddis ofrece al lector una nueva exposición de Gran la gran confrontación que marcó nuestra existencia y amenazó con acabarla; muestra las dinámicas subyacentes al conflicto; analiza cómo la política y la ideología interactuaban para generar cambios sociales, y plantea escenarios hipotéticos qué, de haberse presentado, habrían significado una amenaza para la humanidad. El autor muestra cómo los creadores de la política de lo más alto, y la gente ordinaria también, lograron invertir el curso de la historia.
“Este es un camino no convencional, emprendido por Gaddis, para Resaltar un punto importante: la Guerra Fría es históricamente significativa tanto por lo que pasó como por lo que no pasó. el autor presenta terribles posibilidades acerca de la gran sombra global que provocaron los Estados Unidos y la unión soviética, una sombra que nunca se transformó en una guerra de Gran escala.” The Washington Post.

Well written, concise, typical American summary of the cold war by a Harvard professor. This biased review of key events in the cold war makes for good reading if you are a political scientist, who likes his history written around the big male actors (presidents, generals) with no attention paid to the (wo)men in the street, and if you prefer the use of reified, unambiguous perceptions of political systems and ideologies over the messy reality that you experience yourself on a daily basis.

Typical American is a holy belief in the Constitution with a capital C, that claims that ‘all men are equal’. This false claim serves as a key motive for Americans to play the role of global policeman that promotes ‘freedom and independence of all’. Never mind the injuns, negroes, women and all residents of non-Western countries in the South that feature only as fluff – background context to the real stage where the Western and Eastern Powers play the game of diplomacy and MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction). Finally, Gaddis is a real ‘free market’ supremist who believes in the holy trinity of private property, efficient markets and trickle down that ‘could be trusted to advance everyone’s interests’. This false belief does not explain how 1% of the world population ended up owning over 50% of everything there is to own on planet Earth, a process which was in full swing during the course of the cold war, leaving that same planet under threat of immediate destruction without the occurrence of single nuclear war.

Having said that, there is some real nuggets inside this gem of a book. Truman’s push for UN consent to fight the war in South Korea in the 1950s did a lot to foster international diplomacy and the role of the UN in that. Nixon and Kissinger’s exploitation of the independent role of communist China for the sake of seeking a lid on the nuclear arms race and wresting an opening for Human Rights based protests in the communist block was brilliant, resulting in the Helsinki agreement and SALT I. This provides an alternative view on Nixon’s presidency, which is otherwise overshadowed by Watergate and dodgy lies on the home front, ultimately forcing him out of office (to the surprise of his international counterparts, who considered the snooping on political opponents as a minor transgression that strong rulers habitually engage in).

The unexpected end of the cold war is also well written, with key roles accorded to Reagan, Gorbachev and pope John Paul. Key roles were played by a simmering peat fire of frustration in Eastern European countries, with Hungary opening up first, Gorbachev shaken by real doubts due to the fall-out of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and other countries following swiftly and imaginatively, culminating in the year of huge change in 1989. Bush senior was completely out of depths and Gorbachev refused to play the card of violent suppression – the result being that for once the world stage of diplomacy followed the wake of events unfolding on the ground. ( )