The Cold War Is Over

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

By the editor of Foreign Affairs , this succinct, highly readable survey analyzes the origins of the Cold War and the still unresolved issues. Among the major events discussed are the Berlin blockade, the building of the Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Nixon's overtures to China, detente, the SALT agreements and the wars in Asia. According to Hyland, the Cold War during the Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev regimes was a ``straight power play'' that had little to do with ideology, economic models or winning hearts and minds, and not until Gorbachev did the U.S.S.R. acknowledge that the war was unwinnable by either East or West. The book describes how Gorbachev and Reagan opened negotiations for peace terms which are ongoing even as the revolution in Eastern Europe shapes the post-Cold War world. Hyland concludes that the U.S. and its supporters have prevailed because the post-WW II coalition of wartime allies and former enemies proved too strong against Soviet expansionism and because of inherent flaws in the Soviet system. (June)

Library Journal

Hyland, a former CIA and National Security Council official, presents the history of Soviet foreign policy from 1917 to the present in a readable ``executive summary'' manner that is sometimes lively but lacks any of the details that might make it come alive. This could be used as a sort of thumbnail alternative to Adam Ulam's Expansion and Coexistence ( LJ 8/68; 1974. 2d ed.) and might serve as a fine refresher course for those already familiar with the subject, but its rather themeless approach makes it less appropriate as an introduction or source of reference. Hyland's most distinctive insights relate to Khrushchev (who, Hyland writes, is too often eulogized as a great statesman) and the Vietnam War, the main turning points of which he summarizes with unusual clarity. For larger Soviet studies collections.-- Robert Decker, Columbia