Cold War In Retrospect

An analysis and critical commentary on the general approach of American foreign policy toward Soviet Russia during the formative years of the Cold War. Whitcomb contends that the United States must bear a major share of the responsibility for the endless litany of conflicts, crises, and military confrontations that came to mark our foreign relations after 1945.

Whitcomb shows that the American foreign affairs tradition led the country to entertain persistent misperceptions of the realities of the international arena in which it had to function. At the same time, Whitcomb points to the incompatability between many of the nation's most cherished values and the habits of action that Americans exhibited in their relationships with other states. An important post-revisionist view, this book will be of interest to American foreign policy for scholars and students alike.

A new look at the origins of the Cold War, based in part on the recently opened archives of the former Soviet Union.

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Analyzes and critiques the general approach of US foreign policy toward the Soviet Union during the formative years of the Cold War. Concludes that the government did not handle itself well during the two decades after World War II, and must share a major share of responsibility for the conflicts, crises, and military confrontations that two generations grew up through. Also critiques the historical tradition of foreign affairs that conditioned the approach. Distributed in the US by Greenwood. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

ROGER S. WHITCOMB is Professor of International Relations/Foreign Policy Studies and Director of International Studies at Kutztown University. A widely published specialist in Russian-American relations, his latest book is The American Approach to Foreign Affairs: An Uncertain Tradition (Praeger, 1998).