{"product_id":"the-united-states-and-the-end-of-the-cold-war-implications-reconsiderations-provocations","title":"The United States and the End of the Cold War: Implications  Reconsiderations  Provocations","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Cold War ended with an exhilarating wave of events: the toppling of the Berlin Wall  the rise of the dissident poet Vaclav Havel  the revolution in Romania. Americans rejoiced at the dramatic conclusion of the long struggle. \"But victories in wars--hot or cold--tend to unfocus the mind \" writes John Gaddis. \"It can be a dangerous thing to have achieved ones objectives  because one then has to decide what to do next.\" In The United States and the End of the Cold War  Gaddis provides a sharp focus on the long history of the Cold War  shedding new light on its sudden ending  as well as on what might come next. In this provocative  insightful book  Gaddis offers a number of thoughtful essays on the history of international relations during the last half century. His reassessments of important figures and themes from the Cold War are sometimes surprising. For example  he portrays John Foster Dulles and Ronald Reagan as far more flexible and perceptive statesmen than the missile-toting caricatures depicted in editorial cartoons. And he takes a second look at the importance of espionage and intelligence in Cold War history  a field often left to buffs and spy novelists. Most important  he focuses on the central elements in superpower relations. In an eloquent account of the American style of foreign policy in the twentieth century  for instance  he explores how Americans (having learned the lesson of Adolf Hitler) consistently equated the forms of foreign governments with their external behavior  assuming that authoritarian states would be aggressive states. He also analyzes the \"tectonics\" of Cold War history  demonstrating how long term changes in international affairs and Soviet bloc countries built up pressures that led to the sudden earthquakes of 1989. And along the way  Gaddis illuminates such topics as the role of morality in American foreign policy  the relevance of nuclear weapons to the balance of power  and the objectives of containment. He even includes (and criticizes) an essay entitled  \"How the Cold War Might End \" written before the dramatic events of recent years  to demonstrate how quickly the tide of history can overwhelm contemporary analysis. Gaddis concludes with a thoughtful consideration of the problems and forces at work in the post-Cold War world. Author of such works as The Long Peace and Strategies of Containment  John Lewis Gaddis is one of the leading authorities on postwar American foreign policy. In these perceptive  highly readable essays  he provides a fresh assessment of the evolution of the Cold War  and insight into the shape of things to come.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44945126293557,"sku":"ByrdShop_0195085515","price":28.3,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195085518.jpg?v=1770915606","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-united-states-and-the-end-of-the-cold-war-implications-reconsiderations-provocations","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}