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Using extensive materials from both published and private sources, this concise text by a prominent historian focuses on U.S./Soviet diplomacy to explain the causes and consequences of the Cold War. The updated ninth edition covers the events of September 11, 2001, and analyzes the new world that began that day. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Unrepentant revisionist`s version of the Cold War
Walter LaFeber is a product of the Wisconsin University`s radical left history department. The uninitiated should read John E. Hayes'
"In Denial". Despite evidence to the contrary, LaFeber foists the guilt of the origins of the Cold War upon the United State`s "imperialism" and minimizes Stalin`s complicity. There are many more unbiased books available on this to read.

excellent up to date analysis of cold war
a really useful book for all students of cold war history and politics.This an updated edition, the first edition was produced in 1966.extensively updated with a new chapter dealing with the post September 11 world. Well written with a web link for access to copies of all primary documents. ... Read more

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Most scholarly studies devoted to examining the entire Cold War period focus almost exclusively on Soviet-American relations, thus neglecting other important aspects of the war. In addition to the global contest between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the history of the Cold War involves a wide range of issues relating to geopolitics, political economy (both international and domestic), and political development in all parts of the world. This international study provides a fresh perspective on the Cold War through an exploration of many of these issues, including: changes in the global distribution of power; advances in warfare technology; shifts in the balance of social and political forces within and among nations; the evolution of the world economy; and the transformation of the Third World. David Painter offers a compact, sophisticated analysis of how all of these factors intersected to produce, prolong and eventually end the Cold War. ... Read more

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Manhood and American Political Culture in the Cold War examines the way in which a cult of toughness shaped the politics of the early cold war. Delving into the cultural origins of this preoccupation with masculinity, Cuordileone shows how the excessive emphasis placed on masculine virility in political life reflected acute mid-twentieth century anxieties about manhood and sexuality as well the ideological imperatives of the cold war. Reading major public figures like Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Adlai Stevenson, J. Edgar Hoover, Joseph McCarthy, Norman Mailer, David Riesman, William Whyte, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy as well as many lesser know experts and cultural commentators, Cuordileone reveals how deep anxieties about a decline in American masculinity shaped the political dynamics of the time and inspired a reinvention of the liberal as a cold warrior in the figure of JFK. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Masculinity in early cold war America
This book explores discourses about masculinity in American life in the early Cold War years. The author provides extensive analysis of examples (from political speeches, movies, popular novels, magazine articles, non-fiction books, etc.)of such discourses.

The author shows how both American liberals and their right wing opponents used gender as a tool. The right wing portrayed liberal Democrats as effete Ivy League educated fops whose lack of hardnosed intelligence had made them sell out to Stalin at Yalta, "lose" China to the Communists, associate with a spy like Alger Hiss, etc. The author shows how Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic Party nominee for president in 52' and 56' against Eisenhower, was an especially favorite target for the right wing. Stevenson was described as an over-educated sissy northeastern aristocrat while men like Nixon and Joe McCarthy were self-made men from humble circumstances, hardened veterans of WWII who would give the Communists no quarter. The New York Daily News wrote that Stevenson had a "fruity" voice. His flowery speeches were ridiculed. Nixon and McCarthy warned that Stevenson, being the sentimental sissy that he was, would go out of his way to appease the Soviets. Also, stories were diligently circulated throughout the political grapevine by J. Edgar Hoover that Stevenson had twice been arrested for homosexual conduct

The right wing engaged in an effort to link homosexuality, along with sexual immorality in general, to liberal Democrats. The 1951 best selling sensationalist "expose" by two conservative journalists called "Washington Confidential"alleged that Washington's Georgetown neighborhood was home to rich liberal homosexuals and other deviants.The journalists painted lurid pictures of rich homosexual liberals residing in Georgetown while participating in drug soaked sex parties, and other decadent activities. During the 1952 election, Joe McCarthy pledged to continue his fight to remove "Communists and sex perverts" from government employment. As a result of McCarthy's congressional testimony, Carmel Offie, a high official of the CIA, was quietly fired for being a homosexual.Liberal politicians were especially on the defensive when it was revealed in February 1950 that 91 individuals had been fired from the State Department because of alleged homosexual conduct.

As far as the use of masculinity by liberals, the author starts off his book with an analysis of Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s1949 book "The Vital Center." The essence of Schlesinger's book was an attempt to dissociate the New Deal tradition from the Communist associations of the "Popular Front" alliances of the 1930's."Vital Center" liberals like himself were portrayed by Schlesinger as being the most emotionally mature, clear-headed tough-minded people on the political spectrum. The new liberals, in Schlesinger's eyes, were not sentimental do-gooders but folks unafraid to use violence to confront the Communist menace and who viewed domestic communists as dangerous emotionally stunted malcontents. Liberals also threw McCarthy's demagoguery back in his face. The author writes that the liberal syndicated columnist Drew Pearson secretly had a file of affidavits from males who alleged that they had sexual encounters with McCarthy.The Las Vegas Sun, before the 1952 election, specifically charged McCarthy with being a homosexual. In McCarthy's1954 censure hearings, the Vermont Republican senator Ralph Flanders, implied that McCarthy's relationship with his aides Roy Cohn and David Schine was homosexual in nature.

The author spends some time in the book talking about the issues of conformity and gender roles that arose outside the official political sphere. Prominent authors of the period argued or implied that American men were being emasculated by the culture of the 1950's. Popular novels and Playboy magazine portrayed American males as trapped by the demands placed on them as suburban husbands and fathers.. American men were described as operating under an ethos that stressed cooperation with others, the need to avoid expressing original thought and to conduct themselves in ways that wouldn't offend other people. Over-dominating women were blamed for draining the manhood out of American men by some authors, the science fiction writer Philip Wylie being the most vulgar example. Psychologists argued that emotionally manipulative and over-dotting mothers were creating confusion about gender roles in their sons. Such confusion was leading to a "flight from masculinity," one result of which was homosexuality. The author examines the fixation on the alleged decrease in male respect for proper gender roles in the work of psychologist Robert Lindner, who wrote a novel that was the basis for the movie "Rebel Without A Cause." In that movie, James Dean's character supposedly turned to juvenile delinquency in part because his father was not a strong male role model but a nice guy and a pushover who was controlled by an overbearing wife.

The main text of the book ends with a discussion of the masculine themes projected by the John F. Kennedy administration. Kennedy followed the script laid down by Arthur Schlesinger in the Vital Center and in other writings Kennedy admired. Kennedy's handlers projected him as an intellectual but also a tough nosed militarist unafraid of a showdown with the Soviets. Kennedy and his followers portrayed Eisenhower as a weak old man who was afraid to exercise power-- while Kennedy was young and vibrant and not at all afraid to make decisions and order people around. Kennedy accused Eisenhower of showing indecision as the Soviets built more missiles than the United States. Of course this "missile gap" turned out to be a fraud; the Americans had great superiority in missile development compared to the Soviets.Kennedy and his circle professed to be unsentimental advocates of violence as they pursued their aims in foreign affairs. "Operation Mongoose," the secret campaign of economic sabotage and terror launched by the CIA against Cuba in November 1961, was a prime example of this. They did all they could to separate Democratic liberalism from Adlai Stevenson's undeserved reputation as a weak-kneed appeasing sissy. The author notes that JFK was known to privately make fun of Stevenson's lack of masculinity.

This book is a fine piece of scholarship. It is not a particularly quick read but it is certainly not dry.

The rhetoric of the Cold War explained
Read this for graduate American history course.

K. A. Cuordileone's book examines the work of Daniel Bell's 1955 essay on the "radical right" and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.'s 1949 book, The Vital Center, which illustrates the burgeoning Cold War political divisions in the U.S. that had come into prominence in the 1950's.Bell explained that the discourse had become polarized into two camps--"hard" and
"soft."People were deemed "hard" if they believed that both international and domestic Communism posed a grave threat to the security of the U.S.Conversely, People were deemed "soft" if they believed that the danger from domestic Communism was nil.In his article, Cuordileone points out that Bell failed to examine the roots of this new polarizing language that dominated the political lexicon in the U.S. for several decades.Although Bell lamented this seemingly amorphous division in U.S. politics, Cuordileone's research proved that conservatives were not the inventors of this new rhetoric.Actually, Schlesinger's book introduced the hard /soft dichotomy in his defense of liberal anti-Communism.This new polarizing language had a gender component to it as well.The analogy was that a hard stand against all forms of Communism was masculine, and that it was feminine and a real danger to the security of the U.S. to be soft on Communism.It was this gender-based language that helped to push Cold War politics to grow more divisive and mean spirited.Thus, the purpose ofCuordileone's book was to identify and explain the: "excessive preoccupation with--and anxiety about--masculinity in early Cold War American politics."

Schlesinger's book, "The Vital Center is habitually cited as a turning point for American liberalism, an unequivocal rejection of extremist politics and an articulation of a new liberal anticommunist political realism."Schlesinger's opening premise was that the industrial revolution put mankind in a state of fear and anxiety, and thus made mankind more apt to turn to utopian and totalitarian forms of government to assuage their fears.Only in the aftermath of the terrible events of WWII were liberals forced to recognize that humankind indeed had the capacity to do evil.This recognition made liberals give up their long held belief in humankind's perfectibility and rationality.Schlesinger realized that the history of appeasing Hitler prior to the war, and the dangers that loomed in making the same mistake with Stalin in the days ahead, made it important to construct a liberal response to Communism that could stand up to the criticism of the political right in America.He wanted to prove that a new liberal doctrine would in fact occupy the vital center in American politics.

He attacked the conservatives for their unwillingness to tackle social reforms during the industrial revolution, and he saw insipid conservative capitalists meeting their responsibilities by hiding behind destructive tariffs and monopolies.Schlesinger observed that historically, conservatives turned their backs on robust men, such as Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill; men who acted masculinity.Instead, conservatives embraced the effeminate Neville Chamberlains of the world, men who traded responsibility for isolationism.Thus, Schlesinger charged conservatives of becoming "impotent" men politically.

On the other hand, Schlesinger ridiculed the progressive left, which he named "Doughfaces," because they were too pliable and "hopelessly and irrevocably feminine."Doughfaces live within utopian beliefs and do not recognize the harsh realities of the world.For Schlesinger, Doughfaces had a genuine concern for the betterment of humankind but could only muster up enough energy to be dreamers and critics; they were not masculine enough to be doers.Thus, "Schlesinger took the progressive's politics as evidence of emotional maladjustment, what the postwar intelligentsia so frequently and indiscriminately called `neurosis.'"Schlesinger's conclusion was that the reconstituted postwar liberal leaders would occupy the vital center politically by proving that they were doers and not just complainers.Schlesinger argued that these new leaders were the only people capable of producing "a secure and restored American masculinity."

Cuordileone astutely concluded that despite "Schlesinger's effort to masculinize the liberal reform tradition...it did not prevent liberals (including Schlesinger himself) from being accused of softness."Cuordileone noted that the hard right's political rhetoric became much cruder and targeted such men as Secretary of State Dean Acheson and presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson as paragons of pompous "eastern establishment liberalism," too soft to stand against the pernicious evils of Communism.Thus, Cuordileone's research proved that throughout the 1950's, hard right political leaders such as Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy successfully put Democrats on the defensive with their accusations that they were soft on Communism and guilty of not working diligently in ferreting out Communists from government agencies.The hard right even had some success in convincing the American public that Communists had a higher propensity than other segments of society to be sexual deviants and homosexuals, and if Democrats were unwilling to go after them hammer and tong, then they must be guilty by association.Cuordileone wrote, "In the fallout from the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections, the bleeding-heart liberal egghead superseded the image of the pragmatic, educated, manly liberal bureaucrat of earlier years."If Schlesinger and Democrats who believed in his thesis were to prove his point, that liberals were masculine leaders that were hard on Communism, then they would need a new young vigorous standard-bearer to propel their political party to victory in the 1960 presidential election.Thus, Cuordileone observed that for the Democrats: "John F. Kennedy became not just the incarnation of the virile `vital center' liberal whose template Schlesinger had created ten years earlier, but the antidote to the nation's crisis in masculinity."

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I recommended this book for anyone interested in American history, foreign policy, Cold War history.

Tying Cold War Masculine Discourse to the Invention of Liberal Consumer Choice and the Death of Regionalism's Sacred National
Manhood and American Political Culture in the Cold War by K.A. Cuordileone engages the cultural symbology of cold war politics from approximately 1948 thru 1963. It seeks to situate the origins of masculine rhetorical binaries such as "soft" and "hard" in a milieu of cultural reinvention. To do this, it deploys masculinity to center a framework of inquiry around sexuality and identity. This framework is then applied as an interpretive of Cold War political discourse and change. The text claims that accusations of emasculation helped to reshape liberal politics, forcing it toward an anticommunist center. This ultimately translated into support for interventionist government that cracked down on danger and deviance in private life. Among numerous junctures that the author uses to highlight this is the 1952 presidential race, in which Adlai Stevenson was denounced by mainstream press for "teacup words and a "fruity voice (p. 88)." His decisively anticommunist rhetoric could not overcome his vision of American identity as rooted in "plains," "mountains," and "seas (p. 89)." Indeed, such rhetoric evoked the regionalist art of the New Deal era, in which American identity and the sacred national were constituted of land and laboring people. Cuordileone demonstrates how this rhetoric becomes anachronistic and effeminate, and how the new sacred national of science and industry was inscribed upon on the male body.

American political culture was also a site of intellectual contestation. The author sees this epitomized in the work of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. which she uses to frame the centering of liberalism in a narrative of epiphany and natural political maturation. Such efforts saw New Deal pluralism as a noble naivete and postwar consumerism/individualism/anti-communism as emergent from an adolescence ill-informed about the birds and the bees of the human condition. According to Cuordileone, Schlesinger saw the liberal coming of age as "[rejecting] facile notions of progress and human perfectibility (p. 5)" and instead being informed by a pragmatism that understood "the unconscious dimension of political behavior (p. 26)." Indeed, such rhetoric in political discourse resembles the rhetoric of commodity advertisement which seeks to access the unconscious desires of the citizen consumer.

Cuordileone's analysis hits its stride in connecting the masculinist trappings of Cold War political binaries to changing ideas of the public and of human nature. It devotes an extensive literary survey to the meanings of conformity in the cold war era. The author's consideration of works of popular psychology like David Riseman's The Lonely Crowdhelp demonstrate the catch-22 of modeling the individual as object in which there is indulgence beneath the surface that constitutes untapped economic expansion. Riseman, who writes about men as they were the only category of agency in his period, divides society into the "other directed" (feminine) man who is presumably the stable employee of a business organization and the "inner directed" man who presumably indulges competitively in commodities like those produced by that organization (p. 120). In a similar paradox, regionalism died because the land became profane, populated by persons of uncertain pathology who could only assure their civility by aligning that indulgence with sanctioned commodity. Yet it is the gendered excision of uncertain pathology that throws that same land into constant redemption. While Cuordileone is not as convincing when she extends her consideration of masculinity to a phenomenon that is particularly liberal, she avoids the trap of simple determinism and supports her core thesis with a broadly considered and intricately synthesized work. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (11)

Remarkably revealing, terrible insight.

Hank Albarelli's book is readable, set up for flow. You can't say that about all heavily documented non fiction. Hank's style is accessible and the content itself is startling. It goes straight to the place in your brain that says the way to root out corruption is to make it known. This is a remarkable enterprise, the best of investigative journalism.JCW

An amazing tale of intrigue and surprise
Hank Albarelli's new book "A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secrect Cold War Experiments" is a spell-binding tale that recalls a time in our history when terrible things were done in the name of patriotism. It takes us on a journey and tells the story of many previously unknown people, places, and events that occurred during the Cold War. I found myself feeling shocked and surprised by what I learned about the goings on at the CIA and elsewhere in our government. This is a true story that has been previously untold and will shock and surprise you. You will learn about things that will seem unbelievable, and you will be amazed at the number of people who were in on the schemes that changed many lives. This book is incredibly well researched and written, and is the result of years of meticulous work. In addition to the amazing amount of research that Mr. Albarelli did, he also tracked down some of these little known individuals and interviewed them regarding their memories of what happened during this time. This is a real work of scholarship while at the same time, being highly readable and entertaining. I highly recommend it for both history and non-hsitory buffs alike and promise that you will not be able to put it down until you come to the end of a remarkable journey!

GAME-CHANGER: COMPLETELY RECONFIGURES ONES VIEW OF COMPARTMENTALIZATION THUSRESHUFFLINGALL OF CIA HISTORY
Ten Stars.

This book is incredible!!! It really shows like nothing else I have seen before how CENTRAL the MKULTRA Bluebird, Artichoke stuff was. I am continuously amazed at how VIRTUALLY ALL the key players of CIA then and later during JFK assassination were in some way or another involved in these 3 programs from at the latest 1953. It really repositions these programs in terms of ones schema of CIA history, because it shows that the idea of compartmentalization, can obscure as much as reveal: your Kirkpatrick's might know one angle of a program and your Edwards' might know another, but they both knew important stuff very very early. Given the latter's role along with Houston in later "investigations" of the CIA, it is impossible for the readers new gleaning about the MKULTRA part not to affect his her view of the whole of CIA's later history.

In short this book is a game-changer for even folks who are well-read on this topic and its wider implications for US Cold War Policy and society. I recommend people get this book now. Never has such a specific book been so general in its ramifications. Especially recommended for readers of these two absolutely foundation shaking books:
Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon : Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil
JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters

Brilliant ,riveting, engrossing !
From time to time,there comes along a book which captures your attention and will remain in your memory forever.The reasons for this may have to do with its special topic, style,contents,research or insights.Such a book is H.P.Albarelli's superb book on the murder of Dr.Frank Olson and the CIA's secret Cold War experiments.After a very long period of research-ten years,to be precise-we are presented with one of the greatest mysteries which happened during the ideological conflict between the major superpowers.On November 28,1953,Dr.Frank Olson,who was a biochemist working with the CIA,fell to his death from a hotel window in New York.This event was described in and endless number of works, but was never investigated fully because of some reasons.Most of them had to do with the fact that many documents pertaining to this occurrence were still classified-and,unfortunately, many still remain so.However,Mr.Albarelli has decided to research to mystery surroundung the case and has come up with many significant and nnew conclusions.I will not reveal them, since I would like that the reader read and form his own judgement about them.One thing is very succinct:the CIA committed most horrible crimes against its own workers and American citizens.This fact is not new, but after reading the the book,one gets the impression hat the CIA was the factotum about all that concerned the security and defense of the USA.In the name of fighting America's enemies, evething was permitted, at least as far as the CIA' bosses were concerned.Thus, an innumerable array of crimes were perpetrated against civilians around the world and inside the USA.These crimes included secret experiments with LSD,projects whose aim was to see how brainwashing would affect the minds of others, etc.Men women,prisoners,prostitutes,scientists and foreigners were drugged with various Frankenstein-like stuff and chemicals without their knowledge or consent, causing them to become insane or other personality disorders.Some of them died as a result,while others prayed to die.Secret operations such as MKULTRA,BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE joined the rank of other monstrous and outlandish ideas like the notorious PHOENIX program of the seventies.All of these were illegal, as the committee investigating them during the middle of the seventies of the previous century established.The term chosen quite appropriately for the CIA of those days was:"A ROGUE ELEPHANT".Mind control research was one of the ways that got the blessing of the highest govenment officials.
There are six parts in this book.The first one is a reconstruction-in the best possible way-of what happened before,during and after the bizzare accident.The second part,named "From brainwashing to LSD",renders the history of the above-mentioned secret operations.The third part covers a number of individuals who played the major part in Olson's death, and so on.You will meet hideous characters, among them Dr.Sidney Gottlieb,who could easily be named the American Dr. Mengele.Why this is so, you will have to find out for yourself.But Gottlieb was not alone.There were higher officials who condoned those tragic and terrible acts and Mr.Albarelli spares no one.
The research which was done in writing this masterpiece is,indeed, beyond any imagination and, in fact, I cannot recall a book where for a tiny event such as Olson's death (which for a historian it can be a microhistory),such an effort was invested in examining tens of thousands of document pages,testimonies,investigations,depositions or court procedures.
The book has appendixesabout mind control victims and photos of relevant documents.Does the USA employ the same tacticts to day in fighting against its enemies? What about biological and chemical warfare these days? What about the scientists working for secret government project today? We cannot know the answers to theses questions.One thing is clear ,after reading this book:in the name of warfare, American doctors and other scientists perpetrated horrible crimes which were not only a contravention of the Hippocratic oath, but also were committed in spite of the Nurmberg code from 1947.
My only criticism concerns the one(s) responsible for proofreading the text.These typos are to be found on pages 187,201(Vogeler and not Volgeler) and 634(all right, and not alright).But all these are are trifle matters.I heartily recommend to read the book to any intelligent reader who would like to learn more about a fascinating episode-one of so many-concerning the Cold War and the way a government branch went berserk when it employed all the illegal means to getto the end.Indeed, Mr.Albarelli's book merits five stars.
I wish I could give it some more!!

amazing story
I composed the only opera on this topic with librettist Gary Heidt. See it all on YouTube "Man: Biology of a Fall" If art doesn't validate a story, maybe this book will for this one. Evan Hause ... Read more

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The Cambridge History of the Cold War is a comprehensive, international history of the conflict that dominated world politics in the twentieth century. The three-volume series, written by leading international experts in the field, elucidates how the Cold War evolved from the geopolitical, ideological, economic, and socio-political environment of the two World Wars and the interwar era, and explains the global dynamics of the Cold War international system. It emphasises how the Cold War bequeathed conditions, challenges and conflicts that shape international affairs today. With discussions of demography and consumption, women and youth, science and technology, ethnicity and race, the volumes encompass the social, intellectual, and economic history of the twentieth century, shedding new light on the evolution of the Cold War. Through its various geographical and national angles, the series signifies a transformation of the field from a national - primarily American - to a broader international approach. ... Read more

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Born in the 1930s, the Soviet Air Force's long-range bomber arm (known initially as the ADD and later as the DA) proved itself during World War II and continued to develop in the immediate post-war years, when the former allies turned into Cold War opponents. When the strategic bomber Tu-4 was found to be too 'short-legged' to deliver strikes against the main potential adversary the USA, both Tupolev and Myasishchev OKBs began the task by creating turbine-engined strategic bombers.
By the Khrushchev era in the mid/late 1950's, the Soviet defense industry and aircraft design bureaus set about adapting the bombers to take air-launched missiles for use against land and sea targets. In 1962 the DA fielded its first supersonic aircraft the Tu-22 Blinder twinjet, which came in pure bomber and missile strike versions.
The Brezhnev years saw a resurgence of strategic aviation with the Tu-22M Backfire 'swing-wing' supersonic medium bomber entering service in the mid-1970s followed in 1984 by the Tu-95MS Bear-H and Tu-160 Blackjack, which were capable of carrying six and 12 air-launched cruise missiles, respectively.
Soviet Strategic Aviation in the Cold War shows how the DA's order of battle changed in the period from 1945 to 1991. Major operations, including the air arm's involvement in the Afghan War, the Cold War exercises over international waters in the vicinity of the 'potential adversary', and the shadowing of NATO warships are covered together with details of Air Armies, bomber divisions and bomber regiments, including their aircraft on a type-by-type basis.
More than 500 photos, most of which are previously unpublished in the West, are supplemented by 61 color profiles, color badges, and line drawings of the aircraft and their weapons, making this an essential reference source for the historian and modeler alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

While SAC was defending the U.S......
Hikoki, of Manchester, England, has long been known for doing definitive books on certain topics; their book on "Latin American Air Wars" remains my favorite aviation book of the decade.Now they are working with the noted Lithuanian author Yefim Gordon to unlock more secrets of the Cold War, and this book describes the Soviet equivalent to SAC during those tense times.While all the aircraft types from Tu-4 through Tu-160 are well-illustrated with both photos and color side-views, they are not described technically, as that has already been done elsewhere.Instead the book deals with units, organizations and procedures.There are chapters on Arctic operations, involvement with nuclear testing, assistance to "friendly" nations, the Afghanistan conflict, and the effects of the demise of the Soviet Union.If you're curious as to what went on in the USSR during those years, or if you just want another marking scheme for a Badger or Bear model that you're working on, you'll want this book.

Soviet Strategic Aviation in the Cold War
Yefim Gordon's "Soviet Strategic Aviation during the Cold War is a well written book that follows the expansion of the "long range" aviation component of the Soviet Armed Forces from the introduction of the Soviet copy of the B-29 (TU-4) and the development of the Soviet atom bomb, to development of the TU-160 and it's arrival in the time of "Glanost" and "Perestryka" as well as the fate of air assets at the time of the disolusion of the Soviet Union.
The informaton in it is a good balance between the techincal as well as the added anecdotal showing the human element missing in most other books on the topic of Russian aviation (most notably written by western authors during the cold war). Even though many of the technical information passages mirror those found in other of Gordon's books they are well balanced with new information. The technical, human perspective, program development, as well as the provided insight of how the different Soviet bureaucracies interacted with each other gives genuinefeel of life from the Soviet point of view, and keeps the the reader interested.
The illustrations are well rounded with line and side drawing of many aircraft types. While many may be new to most readers, manywere previously published in older Russian as well as in other of Gordon's books. To be fair, the sources for photos taken during the Soviet era were far fewer and very restricted. Still the book is well illustrated and the photos of the loading and delivery of the Soviet atomic weapons is well worth the price.
Overall, the book is a recommended read covering a subject of Soviet Aviation during the cold war that was even more closed to the public, provides a glimpse into the operations, structure, organizational relationship, aircraft development, as well as giving the reader a feel for the human element.

About as good as it gets
Gordon hits another home run!More than just a laundry list of Soviet strategic bombers, this book begins the immediate post WWII era with the formation of the Long Range Aviation force and traces the fleet up to the present day. Along with tons of great b&w and color photos that are typical Gordon, there is also fine artwork, relevant anecdotes from bomber crewmen, and plenty of information on related issues such as the roles of the bombers in Soviet atomic bomb tests, combat in Afghanistan abd Chechnya, and the supporting aircraft like the Il-78 MIDAS tankers and the navigation trainers. And, like all of Gordon's titles in the "Aerofax" series, there are plenty of photos to please the modeler or the Russian military avaition enthusiast.A SUPER book..if the topic at all interests you, buy it! ... Read more

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There is much discussion these days about Public Diplomacy communicating directly with the people of other countries rather than through their diplomats but little information about what it actually entails. This book does exactly that by detailing the doings of a U.S. Foreign Service Cultural Officer in five hot spots of the Cold War Germany, Laos, Poland, Austria, and the Soviet Union as well as service in Washington D.C. with the State Department, the Helsinki Commission of the U.S. Congress, and the National Endowment for Democracy. Part history, part memoir, it takes readers into the trenches of the Cold War and demonstrates what Public Diplomacy can do. It also provides examples of what could be done today in countries where anti-Americanism runs high. ... Read more

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Concise, Colorful, and Critical
Concise, colorful, and critical, Richmond's memoir is fascinating and heart-warming.
As a diplomat and cultural officer during the Cold War, Richmond worked hard to introduce people in the communist countries where he was posted, to the best of American culture: through art, literature, film, dance, and drama, and exchange programs in the U.S. He tells a lot of funny stories about famous people, who, as we know, put on their pants the same way we do.His memoir is fascinating -- from the answer to his kids's question, "Daddy, What do you do at the office?" to the last line: "Our experience in the Soviet Union shows how difficult it can be to bring democracy to countries that have never known democracy."This sheds light on why democracy today does not work in some countries.
I love the chapter on Poland and Richmond's three-year posting in Warsaw.I have visited Poles in their country, and grown to love it."Poland is the only country I have ever visited where the U.S. could do no wrong."That must have been a joy and relief to a foreign service officer.
I recommend this memoir as an insight into how American diplomats illuminated people about American culture and people, at a critical time in history.The Cold War is no more, and that is partly due to Richmond and his colleagues's valiant efforts. ... Read more

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From Aristophanes Lysistrata to the notorious Mata Hari and the legendary Tokyo Rose, stories of female betrayal during wartime have recurred throughout human history. The myth of Hanoi Jane, Jerry Lembcke argues, is simply the latest variation on this enduring theme. Like most of the iconic femmes fatales who came before, it is based on a real person, Jane Fonda. And also like its predecessors, it combines traces of fact with heavy doses of fiction to create a potent symbol of feminine perfidy part erotic warrior-woman Barbarella, part savvy antiwar activist, and part powerful entrepreneur.

Hanoi Jane, the book, deconstructs Hanoi Jane, the myth, to locate its origins in the need of Americans to explain defeat in Vietnam through fantasies of home-front betrayal and the emasculation of the national will-to-war. Lembcke shows th t the expression Hanoi Jane did not reach the eyes and ears of most Americans until five or six years after the end of the war in Vietnam. By then, anxieties about America s declining global status and deteriorating economy were fueling a populist reaction that pointed to the loss of the war as the taproot of those problems. Blaming the antiwar movement for undermining the military's resolve, many found in the imaginary Hanoi Jane the personification of their stab-in-the back theories.

Ground zero of the myth was the city of Hanoi itself, which Jane Fonda had visited as a peace activist in July 1972. Rumors surrounding Fonda s visits with U.S. POWs and radio broadcasts to troops combined to conjure allegations of treason that had cost American lives. That such tales were more imagined than real did not prevent them from insinuating themselves into public memory, where they have continued to infect American politics and culture.

Hanoi Jane is a book about the making of Hanoi Jane by those who saw a formidable threat in the Jane Fonda who supported soldiers and veterans opposed to the war they fought, in the postcolonial struggle of the Vietnamese people to make their own future, and in the movements of women everywhere for gender equality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Why the American right wing loves to hate Jane Fonda.
Jerry Lembcke has earned a reputation as the most intriguing interpreter of how the myths of Vietnam continue to function in American culture to perpetuate acceptance of a militaristic foreign policy.He showed masterfully in The Spitting Image how the myth developed that antiwar protesters massively spat upon soldiers returning from Vietnam.More importantly, he showed why the historical experience of America's first lost war provided fertile ground for such scapegoating.

In his newest book, Hanoi Jane, he exposes why Jane Fonda has been the right wing's favorite bête noir.Until the current vituperation against Nancy Pelosi, Jane Fonda was the most prominent female target of right wing rage.Lembcke continues with the theme of the betrayal narrative:the only reason the war was lost was because of American betrayers who sapped the will to win--the domestic stab in the back.Within that theme is why women, in particular, became the favorite examples of betrayers.They were accused of being the main spitters.While there were many male critics of the war who were more prominent than Fonda, they were tacitly forgiven or at least forgotten, but not her.Misogyny meets militarism.

Lembcke has produced another masterful tour de force interpretation of post Vietnam War culture in the United States and why the same destructive themes keep reemerging as myths.This is a book for everyone who wants to understand the undercurrents of contemporary militaristic culture and history in this country.

Delves into the mythology constructed around Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda's staunch positions during the Vietnam war gave birth the mythos of Hanoi Jane. "Hanoi Jane" delves into the mythology constructed around Jane Fonda, who was known for visiting North Vietnam, visiting prisoners of war during the infamous conflict. Outspoken against the war, she has gained her own infamy, and the figure Hanoi Jane is constructed as what undermined America's efforts during the war. Analyzing the mythos of Hanoi Jane, "Hanoi Jane" is an intriguing and fascinating take that shouldn't be overlooked by any history collection focusing on the Vietnam war.

This is a very important book.
Lembcke is a Vietnam vet who has been intensely interested in how the lost Vietnam War has been reinterpreted and understood by conservative veteran groups and the broader U.S. right wing. In his earlier book The Spitting Image Lembcke researched and wrote a fact driven book that proved, contrary to massive propaganda to the contrary, that returning GI's from Vietnam had NOT BEEN spit upon by anti-war protesters as alleged in Hollywood films, novels, GI memoirs, and journalists. In Hanoi Jane Lembcke continues his de-bunking analysis by looking at Jane Fonda/Hanoi Jane. The book is not at all about Fonda, but instead about Hanoi Jane, a fictional creation in the tradition of Tokyo Rose and Mata Hari. The Hanoi Jane myth targets Fonda as a treasonous figure responsible for the loss of the Vietnam War. The right's Hanoi Jane characterization serves to erase historical memory of the valiant Vietnamese struggle for independence along with the large scale resistance within the U.S. military itself that eventually forced the government to mercifully end the war. Lembcke also explains how the "spit upon vet" and Hanoi Jane have been used to sell the Gulf War and the post-9/11 wars to the American public. To the hard core right this book will be further evidence of left wing venality, but to those with open minds who understand and can recognize reason, research, evidence, and skilled argumentation, Hanoi Jane will provide a valuable educational experience. ... Read more

Product Description
This anthology of essays questions many widespread assumptions about the culture of postwar America. Illuminating the origins and development of the many threads that constituted American culture during the Cold War, the contributors challenge the existence of a monolithic culture during the 1950s and thereafter. They demonstrate instead that there was more to American society than conformity, political conservatism, consumerism, and middle-class values.

By examining popular culture, politics, economics, gender relations, and civil rights, the contributors contend that, while there was little fundamentally new about American culture in the Cold War era, the Cold War shaped and distorted virtually every aspect of American life. Interacting with long-term historical trends related to demographics, technological change, and economic cycles, four new elements dramatically influenced American politics and culture: the threat of nuclear annihilation, the use of surrogate and covert warfare, the intensification of anticommunist ideology, and the rise of a powerful military-industrial complex.

This provocative dialogue by leading historians promises to reshape readers' understanding of America during the Cold War, revealing a complex interplay of historical norms and political influences. ... Read more

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Battleground Berlin is the definitive, insider`s account of the espionage warfare in Berlin from 1945 to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, In an unprecedented collaboration, CIA and KGB intelligence veterans reveal previously untold stories of the Berlin tunnel, critical movements of the Berlin crisis, clandestine initiatives, betrayals, and defections to provide the first comprehensive and accurate history of the Cold War battles waged in Berlin.Amazon.com Review
Battleground Berlin is the product of an unprecedented collaboration between two veteran intelligence officers--one with the CIA, the other with the KGB--who worked on opposite sides in postwar Berlin. With the help of journalist George Bailey, they have told what will likely stand as the definitive account of those remarkable years. The KGB had the advantage of existing, in one form or another, since the Russian Revolution, while the CIA was a fledgling agency. But KGB agents and analysts were under chronic pressure to twist their intelligence reports for political reasons, which evened the scales somewhat.

Armed with information from numerous interviews, access to previously secret documents (many reproduced in the book), extensive research, and their own recollections, the authors roam the existing Cold War literature, correcting lies and false conclusions, putting rumors to rest, and exposing ignorance--in short, setting the record straight. They provide definitive accounts of many key episodes, including the double defection of Otto John, the head of West German counterespionage, and the famous tunnel incident of 1955-56, in which an American tunnel into the Soviet sector was exposed by a highly placed informant and then "discovered" in an elaborate ploy to protect the agent. Battleground Berlin is a remarkable amalgam. It is a fascinating, sometimes gripping spy story, complete with safe houses, forged identities, double agents, and street-corner rendezvous; it is also a scrupulously researched piece of historical scholarship and analysis. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Spies Like Them
If one were to pick the "ideal author" to narrate a history of the CIA or KGB, the choices usually end with a decision between a former operative in one of the agencies, a historian, or a journalist. In Battleground Berlin, Murphy, Kondrashev, and Bailey have managed to find the merging of two of the three. The first two are former operatives - one in the CIA and one in the KGB. The latter, is a reporter. It is an important distinction to make from the beginning, because the tone and language used in their book is often that of the first-person, and it is always narrated with a vested interest, first-hand accounts, and material that may seem overzealous.

Luckily for the three, the Cold War remains a fertile topic of examination for historians. In terms of uniqueness, Battleground Berlin represents one of the first times in the post-Cold War era that former CIA and KGB officers have come together to write about the history of American and Soviet intelligence operations. The work is not simply the memoirs of David Murphy, former chief of the CIA's Berlin Operations Base, and Sergei Kondrashev, former head of the KGB's German department and active measures department, but relies to a considerable extent on a vast array of sources from both Soviet and American archives. To be sure, much of the story is based on the recollections of the co-authors, but these are tempered by supporting evidence.

In this work, the reader is treated to a sober and balanced account of major Cold War events in Germany as interpreted by the American and Soviet intelligence services. The authors' smooth narrative touches on the primary events that will be familiar to most historians of post-war Europe: the Berlin Blockade, the Korean War (and its effect on Germany), the June 1953 uprising in East Germany, the Otto John case, the Berlin Tunnel, and the Berlin crisis of 1958-1961 which culminated in the building of the Berlin Wall.

The authors portray in an interesting manner the intelligence organizations in Germany in the initial postwar years. The view put forth is not necessarily a unique one, but it is put forth in a dynamic manor: The fledgling CIA was naive and unprepared compared to the seasoned opponent in the KGB. The authors point out, for example, that the CIA did not receive its first Russian speaker until 1947 (p. 23). In contrast, the Soviets in Germany were preparing for intelligence operations in the West "as the fronts advanced into Germany (p. 33)." The authors attribute this contrast in preparation to the deep-seated paranoia which characterized Soviet Russia (p. 26), as personified in Joseph Stalin.

Battleground Berlin sets out to describe in detail the major Cold War events in Germany, and specifically Berlin, as they related to intelligence. The account of the Berlin Blockade makes clear that the Soviets had reliable information on the position of the Western governments, but that this information was not translated into useful knowledge because the Soviet leaders rejected intelligence that did not conform to their preconceptions. As a result, Soviet intelligence officers often "appropriately" adjusted negative intelligence before distributing it to higher levels of the Communist Party, or simply did not distribute discouraging intelligence. On the other hand, the authors argue, the West opted to continue the Airlift in part because of reassurance by CIA reports that the Soviets did not intend to take military action against the West for continuing the Airlift (p. 62). This analysis of the effect of CIA intelligence on American policy during the Berlin Airlift is provocative, but the evidence to support it is disappointing. The authors cite an interview with Gordon Stewart, the head of the German mission in Heidelberg, as their primary evidence that "senior policymakers in Germany and Washington" were making extensive use of CIA reporting (p. 62). This may be insufficient evidence to support the authors' claim that, "Information obtained by CIA's Berlin Operations Base had a significant and immediate effect on US decisions about West Berlin and West Germany (p. 78)." Furthermore, the reader might have expected mention of the Western counter-blockade, and other events, as contributing to the Soviet decision to lift the Berlin Blockade.

What the authors are truly doing, in their work, is attempting to provide the greatest detail presently available on American and Soviet intelligence organizations during a number of significant Cold War events. Their book successfully untangles the numerous Soviet bureaucratic agencies and departments involved in foreign espionage from one another. Its main strength, however, lies in its portrayal of the inner workings of the Soviet system which effectively hindered reliable intelligence from becoming a useful product in policy-making. Stalin's Soviet Union by its very nature broke the intelligence cycle.

The weaknesses of this work, however, detract from its overall contribution to its academic use. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this work is that it falls short of its claim in the introduction: "The great story of this book is how information becomes knowledge and how this knowledge gets transmuted into political policy (p. xxv)." While events and motives are discussed, little is illustrated to show the effects that such actions had on policy. There is no demonstration of how policy was created, changed, or affected. The authors provide suggestions of such an effects in the discussion of the Berlin Blockade and of the Berlin Wall, but certainly not sufficient evidence to support the claim in the introduction.

Lastly, the authors appear overly pleased with their own "uniqueness," repeating phrases like "never before revealed," (pg. 38) and, "previously unknown" (pg. 51). While much of the evidence and accounts are compelling and interesting, they are hardly unique in and of themselves. What they do not rely on is perhaps their strongest claim. Their knowledge and information is not solely unique, but their portrayal, their comparison side-by-side, and especially their collaboration between two "sides," are what make the work useful, distinctive, and informative.

The Second Cold War
Gorbachev's 'glasnost' and 'perestroika' made much more harm to Western Intelligence than any ideological campaigns of his predecessors. Only once before, namely during the WWII, did Stalin manage to trick the West into believing in 'comrades in arms' and 'Allied powers' slogans of Soviet politics. It resulted in thousands of people, who hated Bolshevism, to be forcefully returned to the Soviet Union after the war, where they were either shot or sent to Gulags. Simultaneously, Western intelligence services were paralised by many moles successfully operating on all shores of the Atlantic and Pacific. As a result, Stalin was awarded "A Man of the Year" title by the Life magazine twice (1939 and 1942), and Gorbachev became a Noble Prize (for Peace?!) winner in 1990.

What did Mikhail Sergeevich do for this award? Deceiving the West with his 'glasnost' concept, he managed to convince many leaders that the Soviet Union started to move in the direction of the open, democratic society. At the same time, the CIA suffered the heaviest blow of all times duting the 1985 Year of Spy with most of its officers ambushed and expelled, and secret agents arrested and shot. Surprisingly, the number of Soviet moles within the CIA and the US government did not decrease after Senator McCarthy's fierce anti-Communist campaign. Names are well known, but I would like to stress that the most recent case dates back to 2002!

So since the Soviet Union under Gorbachev-Yeltsin-Putin started its ideological attack, the number of officers at the Soviet/Russian desk of many Western intelligence services had been dramatically reduced. The budgets allocated for balancing KGB-SVR operations in Europe and Americas were either cut or withdrawn. RFE/RL was moved to Prague, and its staff now consists of only a fistful of journalists. It is virtually unoperative and is being justfully criticised by both American and Russian politicians.

In 1983 Burton Gerber, then head of the CIA's SE division, started secret cooperation with the KGB, authorised by his bosses. In the 1990s first writers and journalists 8late John Costello, as an example), and then the CIA officers started to queue to be nominated Soviet KGB collaborators in "bashful projects of unseen openness". David Murphy, former head of the CIA's SR division, notoriously known for his multiple faux pas (take Nalivaiko and later Nosenko cases, for example) co-authored this book, which gives no credit at all to American intelligence, but fully acts in the interests of Soviet propaganda. I was very much surprised to see such respectable analysts and archivists as Hayden Peake and Oleg Gordievsky praising the book in their earlier reviews. Maybe, it was fashionable in 1997, but then followed Bearden's production in 2003 (Milton Bearden is another former CIA's Soviet/East European chief), so the suit became dangerous. I guess the only way to stop it will be to publish Rem Krasilnikov's book, recently appeared in Moscow. Former Soviet KGB General claims: 'the Cold War will never be over!'

Authoritative and detailed
This is the first time a thorough review of post war Berlin intelligence activities has been published.For the professional this is a good compilation of operations (collection, defection, analysis, etc.).For thenovice the book is a difficult read - chock full of details but not writtenin captivating language.Students of history need to add this to theircollection of books to keep and use as reference.

A little tedious
While there were some stories and information of interest, the book isvery often dry to the point that it's unreadable.I skipped somesections.

There's also a tendency to self-aggrandize.Several time, theauthors take a few moments to criticize other works, and then say"here for the first time" is the real story.While undoubtedlythey do have some never before seen information, I think they spend alittle too much time beating their chests.

Somewhat interesting, butcertainly not spellbinding.Reads like a textbook.

Worthwhile Read
The most interesting aspect of the book may be the insight it gives on the interworkings of the Soviet State.While some passages go into detail much beyond what the general reader will want to know, it is worth trudging through the slow passages. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Was this book financed by George Soros?
From the start until I gave up early in chapter 4, Mark MacKinnon fawns over George Soros as if he is the only champion of democracy in the free world.The inside cover states: "..and George Soros, the idealistic American billionaire behind {the democratic revolutions}".Chapter 3 gives us this gem: "Coincidentally, that...was exactly where George Soros would also soon be turning his attention."From the title of the book, I thought the topic was the cold war, not George Soros.I was sadly disappointed, and bored.

If you want to know that George Soros has spent money on something other than Move on; now you know.But you can skip the book by this author who hates George Bush, likes Bill Clinton and Madelyn Albright, and loves, loves, loves George Soros.

Foreign Invasion by the Ballotbox
It could only have been written by a Canadian!No mainstream Brit or American journalist would hold up the dirty underwear of the East European "democratic transition" in broad daylight - if only because so many of the stains orginated in London and Washington.

Mark MacKinnon has done an excellent investigative job in portraying the packaged "democracy" of the color-coded pseudo-revolutions that swept through the former Soviet bloc (and, later, targeted other sites from Lebanon to Venezuela) within the last decade: how they were spawned in "think tanks" funded by Western governments, and their agendas formulated to serve strategic Western agendas.Ironically, MacKinnon sees no difference between this subsidized subversion and the Putin-style "managed democracies" they target.And of course he's right.

Promoting "democratic revolution" has become the surrogate for direct armed invasion - though, as in Iraq, both can work well together.The strategies these ersatz movements pursue are no different from Communist Popular Front tactics in the same region after World War Two - in fact, the Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" resembles nothing so much as the Czechoslovak "Communist coup" of 1948: a great betrayal of democracy when committed by Them, a flowering of the democratic spirit when choreographed by Us.

Of course there is real frustration and disappointment in the targeted nations, and the revolutionaries of color can find fertile fields for sowing.But the end result does not serve the people whose anger has been manipulated, but invariably the economic and "security" interests of major Western powers, principally but not exclusively the United States.The danger of raising false hopes in these client regimes has been all too plainly illustrated in the case of Georgia, whose US-installed president launched an armed quarrel with Russia banking on the broad American support he'd grown used to, hoping to force his country's inclusion into NATO.When the US didn't "come through" pro-US feeling quickly turned sour, the disillusioned backlash inevitable after starry-eyed adolescent puppy-love meets the real world.Beyond doubt more such knee-jerk little wars and subsequent bad feeling await other "successful" color-coded regimes described in MacKinnon's book. ... Read more

Product Description
This illustrated narrative history, spanning the rise of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, is the companion the major 24-episode documentary airing on CNN, and around the world, beginning in the fall of 1998. 600 illustrations, 100 in color. 7 maps.Amazon.com Review
Beautifully designed and illustrated with hundreds ofphotographs, this companion volume to the CNN documentary seriesbegins with the roots of the cold war: the military intervention bysix nations (including the United States) in the Bolshevik's 1917Russian Revolution. The book then takes on the cold war proper, fromthe post-WWII rise of the Iron Curtain to the collapse of the BerlinWall and the Soviet government in the early '90s. "For forty-fiveyears," the authors write, "the peoples of the world held theirbreath," through missile crises, policies of "mutual assureddestruction," the Vietnam War, and the uneasy steps towarddétente and full peace highlighted by Richard Nixon's meetingswith Brezhnev and by Mikhail Gorbachev's meetings with Ronald Reaganand George Bush. Special sections highlight the role of spies in thecold war, as well as the films and literature of the era. This is acopiously detailed account of the major historical force of thelatter half of the 20th century that would make an excellent referencebook for any household. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Extremely well written, and short accessible chapters
This book is an ideal introduction to the Cold War. It's concise, but never simplistic. The chapters are 10-20 pages on average, and cover topics which have generated libraries of literature. Still, the chapters on the Berlin blockade, the VietNam war or the Cuba crisis give you the feeling that you have read all that you needed to know about the topic. The chapters are easy reads, made even more accessible with excellent photographs, cartoons and maps. Highly recommended, and certainly not just for the coffee table.

46 years in the making, I guess
Everyone and their brother has released a book on World War II. Or any other period in history, for that matter. The Vietnam and Korean wars, its all been told a thousand times. But few books that I've ever found in general circulation cover the broad topic of the entire Cold War. Issacs and crew cover the period with as much detail as possible in such a complicated and even sometimes confusing period of time. They do a superb job, with each chapter covering a specific feature of the Cold War, such as the Cuban Missle crisis and more interesting, though less known of events. Issacs provides a very objective viewpoint, and makes reading Cold War: An Illustrated History not so much as a chore as some history books can be.
The pictures provided are really good, and provide many pictures of the key players in the game of chess that was played on Earth throughout the decades.
I rather enjoyed the various side bars presented throughout the book, each one touching upon various aspects of the Cold War, such as spies, or even entertainment.
If you have any interest in the Cold War, or are just plain curious as to what made the world what it is now, this is your best place to start. Buy it.

An excellant general read on a complex period in history...
If you're looking for general history on the 40 to 50 year period known as the "Cold War", than this book along with the CNN program "Cold War" is for you...contrary to a few of the other reviewers, I liked this book in it's general state and I would not want to extoll my opinions concerning morality here. I'm sure that there are other books that would welcome that type of review, but this book is just for the general history reader and presented in a fabulous format! Maps, color photograhs and charts along with clear and interesting prose make this an excellant "launching pad" to the struggle and to other more detailed views. Highly recommended.

reader from the desert
In contrast to the views of the reviewer below this is a VERY objective book. The U.S./CIACold War activities resulted in the support and establishment of murderous dictatorships in Latin America which were every bit as cruel/oppressive as those of our Communist enemies. There was also the unjust war we waged in Vietnam which killed over a million people. Finally there was the CIA/American backed coup which resulted in the murder of the ELECTED president of Chile, Allende, and the establishement of the dictator Pinochet who is now being prosecuted for mass murder. This book addresses these and other issues instead of using the recent right wing Reagonite rhetoric which equates the U.S. as abenevolent force of freedom as opposed to those evil Communists.The book, while covering many topics and areas related to the cold war, is clearly written and informative. The fantastic illustrations only add to this books appeal. It is time American citizens realize the Cold War was NOT a battle between freedom and tyranny but an amoralconflict between diametrically opposed economic systems struggling to control world markets and resources.

Glossy, Glib, but Unballanced
This book offers a pop history of the Cold War intended for a wide audience. Its main aim seems to be to persuade that both sides were morally equivilent - that the Cold War was caused by misunderstandings and politicsrather than a clash of civilization vs. barbarism. No one would, or should,treat the conflict against Facism and National Socialism (Nazism) in thisfashion; monsterous crimes should be recognized for what they are.Communism was equally wicked, not just another point of view.

For a moreaccurate portrayal of what was at stake in the Cold War I recomend"The Black Book of Communism" and "Architects ofVictory." If any sources should be used to educate children, it isthese books (especially "The Black Book of Communism," which isthouroughly reasurced by scholars in the various fields that are covered),and not this Turner effort to re-write realities underlying the Cold War. ... Read more

Product Description
The man widely believed to have been the model for Alden Pyle in Graham Greene s The Quiet American, Edward G. Lansdale (1908 1987) was a Cold War celebrity. A former advertising executive turned undercover CIA agent, he was credited during the 1950s with almost single-handedly preventing a communist takeover of the Philippines and with helping to install Ngo Dinh Diem as president of the American-backed government of South Vietnam. Adding to his notoriety, during the Kennedy administration Lansdale was put in charge of Operation Mongoose, the covert plot to overthrow the government of Cuba s Fidel Castro by assassination or other means.

In this book, Jonathan Nashel reexamines Lansdale s role as an agent of American Cold War foreign policy and takes into account both his actual activities and the myths that grew to surround him. In contrast to previous portraits, which tend to depict Lansdale either as the incarnation of U.S. imperialist ambitions or as a farsighted patriot dedicated to the spread of democracy abroad, Nashel offers a more complex and nuanced interpretation. At times we see Lansdale as the arrogant "ugly American," full of confidence that he has every right to make the world in his own image and utterly blind to his own cultural condescension. This is the Lansdale who would use any conceivable gimmick to serve U.S. aims, from rigging elections to sugaring communist gas tanks. Elsewhere, however, he seems genuinely respectful of the cultures he encounters, open to differences and new possibilities, and willing to tailor American interests to Third World needs.

Rather than attempting to reconcile these apparently contradictory images of Lansdale, Nashel explores the ways in which they reflected a broader tension within the culture of Cold War America. The result is less a conventional biography than an analysis of the world in which Lansdale operated and the particular historical forces that shaped him from the imperatives of anticommunist ideology and the assumptions of modernization theory to the techniques of advertising and the insights of anthropology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Highly Recommended by James Gibney
James Gibney, one of my most respected sources for common-sense and integrity, posted a review of this book on 15 January 2006 in the New York Times.At Phi Beta Iota, the Public Intelligence Blog, I have posted that three-page review along with some other original references on "Colonel" Landsdale, a journalism drop-out from UCLA and form advertising person, that document the role he played in making genocide and atrocities part of the "Made in USA" Cold War tool-kit.

"The truth at any cost reduces all other costs."

Ten other recommended books:
War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq
Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II-Updated Through 2003
Why the Rest Hates the West: Understanding the Roots of Global Rage
The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future - and What It Will Take to Win It Back

At Phi Beta Iota the Public Intelligence Blog it is possible to access all of my reviews via any of 98 categories 9e.g. Intelligence, Secret; or Pathology of Power; or Empire, etcetera, something Amazon has refused to make possible since I began suggesting it years ago. ... Read more

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When President Dwight Eisenhower spoke of waging "total cold war," he was proposing nothing less than a global, all-embracing battle for hearts and minds. His wide-ranging propaganda campaign challenged world communism at every turn and left a lasting mark on the American psyche.

Kenneth Osgood now chronicles the secret psychological warfare programs America developed at the height of the Cold War. These programs--which were often indistinguishable from CIA covert operations--went well beyond campaigns to foment unrest behind the Iron Curtain. The effort was global: U.S. propaganda campaigns targeted virtually every country in the free world.

Total Cold War also shows that Eisenhower waged his propaganda war not just abroad, but also at home. U.S. psychological warfare programs blurred the lines between foreign and domestic propaganda with campaigns that both targeted the American people and enlisted them as active participants in global contest for public opinion.

Osgood focuses on major campaigns such as Atoms for Peace, People-to-People, and cultural exchange programs. Drawing on recently declassified documents that record U.S. psychological operations in some three dozen countries, he tells how U.S. propaganda agencies presented everyday life in America to the world: its citizens living full, happy lives in a classless society where economic bounty was shared by all. Osgood further investigates the ways in which superpower disarmament negotiations were used as propaganda maneuvers in the battle for international public opinion. He also reexamines the early years of the space race, focusing especially on the challenge to American propagandists posed by the Soviet launch of Sputnik.

Perhaps most telling, Osgood takes a new look at President Eisenhower's leadership. Believing that psychological warfare was a potent weapon in America's arsenal, Ike appears in these pages not as a disinterested figurehead, as he's often been portrayed, but as an activist president who left a profound mark on national security affairs.

Osgood's distinctive interpretation places Cold War propaganda campaigns in the context of an international arena drastically changed by the communications revolution and the age of mass politics and total war. It provides a new perspective on the conduct of public diplomacy, even as Americans today continue to grapple with the challenges of winning other hearts and minds in another global struggle. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Parallels -- then and now
Having been raised primarily towards the end of the Cold War, and as an officer in the military, I actually read this as a primer for how to counter the contemporary terrorist/ radical Islam narrative.Fascinating read.

Fascinating
A good review of what was done in the '50's to defeat the Soviets and a harbinger of what should be done to defeat current threats. Any serious student of counter-terrorism should read this.

Ike as Propagandist
In the early 1980s, with the publication of Fred I. Greenstein's book, "The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader," a reappraisal of Ike's presidency began. This new work by Kenneth Osgood makes a critically important contribution to the brutal historiography of Eisenhower revisionism. It suggests that Eisenhower was much more than a smiling, golf playing figurehead, and instead understood well the stakes and the possibilities of cold war with the Soviet Union. Most important, he waged an aggressive psychological battle for hearts and minds worldwide; one that overall proved quite successful. Based on extensive documentary materials only recently declassified, this work marks a new path in Eisenhower studies. It is a major contribution to the field.

Ike: Psychological Cold Warrior
Many of today's baby boomers grew up in the 1950's and recall President Eisenhower as an avuncular man typified by such snappy slogans as "I like Ike."What many of them did not know was that Ike was an active propagandist trying to win the hearts and minds of citizens not only behind the Iron Curtain, but also at home, in friendly nations, and everywhere else on the planet, taking advantage of new and ever more expansive and rapid communications technologies.

Prof. Osgood has written a penetrating history of Ike's propaganda campaigns, documenting how in a war of ideology, communications was often a more potent weapon than guns and bombs.With campaigns lauding not only the American good life, but also the American space and arms races, Eisenhower and his new Cold Warriors fought in an international arena of public opinion which they used to leverage negotiations to their advantage at home and abroad.

That governments and the powerful have always sought to shape public opinion is no surprise, and it should also be no surprise that Eisenhower, believing that the future of the free world was in the balance, fully utilized the tools of communications and propaganda to his own ends.Prof. Osgood's book reminds us that propaganda comes in many form and guises, and even when we try to justify the means of propaganda by the ends of freedom, truly free people must never accept any speech, especially by governments, at face value. ... Read more

Product Description

While some may argue that religion has & continues to influence U.S. foreign policy, others would argue that foreign policy has significantly influenced an American National Religion after 1947. Here, Gunn shows that in the wake of World War II, Americans quickly returned to their traditional peacetime suspicion of the military & engaged in disputes over capitalism. When Churchill delivered his Iron Curtain speech in 1946, the American press & American politicians panned it. Only one year later, the United States began to identify itself in reaction to the Soviet Union & its growing power and influence on the world stage. If the USSR promoted governmental affirmations of atheism, so the United States would respond with its public declarations of God. This was the origin of under God in the Pledge of Allegiance (1954), In God We Trust on paper money (1955), and other public declarations about God and religion. Tracing the development of this influence on American religion, Gunn reveals a new way of looking at how public faith has been transformed by world events and the U.S.'s reaction to them.

Covering topics such as American national religion, government sponsorship of God and prayer, military activities, the Vietnam war, and current views on religion and foreign policy, the author underscores the ongoing influence foreign affairs and foreign policy have on religion and how it is practiced, both privately and publicly, in the United States. The post-WWII backlash to events occurring around the world, he contends, continues to shape and inform our notions of God and country, public faith, and the U.S.'s position in the global village. Taking the reader through this history to the present day, the author sheds new light on this important topic.

Customer Reviews (2)

Spiritual Weapons
While some may argue that religion has and continues to influence U.S. foreign policy, others would argue that foreign policy has significantly influenced an "American National Religion" after 1947. Here, T. Jeremy Gunn, a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion (CSLR) at Emory University, shows that in the wake of World War II, Americans quickly returned to their traditional peacetime suspicion of the military and engaged in disputes over capitalism. When Churchill delivered his Iron Curtain speech in 1946, the American press and American politicians panned it. Only one year later, the United States began to identify itself in reaction to the Soviet Union and its growing power and influence on the world stage. If the USSR promoted governmental affirmations of atheism, so the United States would respond with its public declarations of God. This was the origin of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance (1954), "In God We Trust" on paper money (1955), and other public declarations about God and religion. Tracing the development of this influence on American religion, Gunn reveals a new way of looking at how public faith has been transformed by world events and the U.S.'s reaction to them.

A product of the CSLR's ongoing project on Religion and Human Rights, the book was produced with support from Luce, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Ford Foundation. Gunn is director of the American Civil Liberties Union Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.

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The Center for the Study of Law and Religion (CSLR) at Emory University is home to world-class scholars and forums on the religious foundations of law, politics, and society. It offers first-rank expertise on how the teachings and practices of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have shaped and can continue to transform the fundamental ideas and institutions of our public and private lives. The scholarship of CSLR faculty provides the latest perspectives, while its conferences and public forums foster reasoned and robust public debate.

Insightful and important read
This book is an important work that incisively examines the intersection and rise of religion and militarism in our nation's politics.A must read for those who want to understand how money, power and religion influence our policies today. ... Read more

Product Description
Russia, once seen as America’s greatest adversary, is now viewed by the United States as a potential partner. This book traces the evolution of American foreign policy toward the Soviet Union, and later Russia, during the tumultuous and uncertain period following the end of the cold war. It examines how American policymakers—particularly in the executive branch—coped with the opportunities and challenges presented by the new Russia.

Drawing on extensive interviews with senior U.S. and Russian officials, the authors explain George H. W. Bush’s response to the dramatic coup of August 1991 and the Soviet breakup several months later, examine Bill Clinton’s efforts to assist Russia’s transformation and integration, and analyze George W. Bush’s policy toward Russia as September 11 and the war in Iraq transformed international politics. Throughout, the book focuses on the benefits and perils of America’s efforts to promote democracy and markets in Russia as well as reorient Russia from security threat to security ally.

Understanding how three U.S. administrations dealt with these critical policy questions is vital in assessing not only America’s Russia policy, but also efforts that might help to transform and integrate other former adversaries in the future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An important seminal work
Little scholarship exists examining the U.S policy towards Russia post 1991.Many books document the environmental catastrophes of Russia, the business climate, the `Oligarchs' and the war in Chechnya but there is a dearth of knowledge surrounding U.S-Russia relations.Building on the `Lenin's Tomb' and "Resurrection' as well as `The Oligarchs' this book explains the quixotic nature of U.S policy.From George Bush's support of Yeltsin to Clintons aiding of the youthful Russian economy to George W. Bush's"I Saw his soul" speech in regards to Putin.

A whirlwind account documenting many of the American efforts vis-à-vis the former Soviet States this book is essential reading for those interested in the current Georgian crises and the fate of Mr. Shevrednadze.Also included here are insights into the Chechan conflict, the Kursk, Putin's nationalism, Zhironovsky's fascism, Yeltsin's infirmity and the fledgling `cowboy' capitalism of Russia's oligarchs and mafia.A wide ranging subject, of interest to Russian scholars and Americanpolicy buffs as well as the average historian and Political scientist. ... Read more