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Overview
Based on new archival evidence, examines Soviet Empire building in Hungary and the American response to it.Synopsis
Aimed at scholars and the interested general reader, this text examines Soviet empire building in Hungary and the American response to it during the Cold War. Drawing upon new archival evidence, Borhi (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) argues that the Soviet Union's main motivation for expansion in this area was economic necessity. He also analyzes why the U.S. failed in even its most minimal aims concerning the states of Eastern Europe. Distributed by Books International. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Foreign Affairs
From the wealth of new Cold War history comes insight into how it looked, felt, and was for third parties. Borhi opens the Hungarian archives for English readers and tells from a Hungarian perspective the familiar stories of the end of World War II, the imposition of the Soviet model on Eastern Europe, and the explosion of 1956. Not only does this yield new detail that considerably complicates the stark narrative of the Cold War years, but it also puts motivations and events in a new light. Borhi lays heavy stress, for example, on the economic reasons of Stalin and his successors for subjugating a country such as Hungary. Then there are the surprises, as in his day-by-day, blow-by-blow account of the run-up to the Soviet intervention in the fall of 1956: how conflicted, confused, and misled Khrushchev and the Politburo were over the decision, and the degree to which the coincidental French-British assault on Egypt played a causal role.