The Cold War

Title: The Cold War

Author: John Lewis Gaddis

Pages: 266

Genre: History/Non-fiction

Letter Grade: B+

Synopsis: Most people in my generation know very little about the Cold War. This is a book written by a Professor of History at Yale University specifically for people who do not remember the fear of life during the Cold War. The book describes how the Cold War began, how the world was divided during the Cold War, the major political decisions that were made during the Cold War and how the Cold War finally ended after 45 years.

My Review: I really liked this book. It was a little dry at times (it is a history book), but most of it was very readable. The book is organized by concepts and by time. This means that once a new chapter is started, the book often goes back in time to explain a new concept. I would have preferred the whole book to be written on a time line and to not go back and forth between decades. I almost even shed a tear at the description of the Berlin Wall being breached.

From the Book:

• "(p. 48)

President Truman: We will take whatever steps are necessary to meet the military situation, just as we always have.

Reporter: Will that include the atomic bomb?

President Truman: That includes every weapon we have.... The military commander in the field will have charge of the use of the weapon, as he always has.

• "(p. 82) And so, to paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut, it did indeed go. The Cold War could have produced a hot war that might have ended human life on the planet. But because the fear of such a war turned out to be greater than all of the differences that separated the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies, there was now reason for hope that it would never take place."

• "(p. 257) Gorbachev was never a leader in the manner of Vaclav Havel, John Paul II, Deng Xiaoping, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Lech Walesa - even Boris Yeltsin. They all had destinations in mind and maps for reaching them. Gorbachev dithered in contradictions without resolving them. The largest was this: he wanted to save socialism, but he would not use force to do so. It was his particular misfortune that these goals were incompatible - he could not achieve one without abandoning the other. And so, in the end, he gave up an ideology, an empire, and his own country, instead of using force. He chose love over fear, violating Machiavelli's advice for princes and thereby ensuring that he ceased to be one. It made little sense in traditional geopolitical terms. but it did make him the most deserving recipient ever of the Nobel Peace Prize."