The Fifty Years War: The United States and the Soviet Union in World Politics, 1941-1991

by Richard Crockatt

Overview

This is an authoritative and comprehensive history of the Fifty Years' war and the relationship that dominated world politics in the second half of the twentieth century.

For fifty years relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were deciding factors in international affairs. Available for the first time in paperback, Richard Crockatt's acclaimed book is an examination of this relationship in its global context. It breaks new ground in seeking a synthesis of historical narrative and analysis of the global structures within which superpower relations developed. Attention is given to economic as well as political and military factors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134779345
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/08/2002
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	440
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Crockatt, Richard

Table of Contents

Part I: Perspectives 1. Introduction: The Fifty Years' War 2. The American and Soviet Foreign Policy Part II: The Emergence of a Bipolar World 1941-1953 3. The Second World War and the Struggle for Peace 1941-1946 4. 'Two Ways of Life': The Cold War in Europe 1947-1953 5. Cold War: The Far Eastern Dimension, 1945-1950 Part III: Globalism and the Limits of Bipolarity 1953-1964 6. Peaceful Coexistence and Irreconcilable Conflict 7. The Nuclear Arms Race 1945-1963 8. The United States, the Soviet Union and the Third World Part IV: Detente and its Limits 1965-1981 9. Detente in the Making 1965-1973 10. The Vietnam War and the Superpower Triangle 11. Detente Under Pressure 1973-1981 Part V: Cold War V International Politics: The Denouement 1981-1991 12. Reaganism and the Spectre of Communism 13. Gorbachev and the New World Disorder Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

Crockatt (The Cold War Past and Present) analyzes the breakdown of the wartime alliance between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. and the two nations' differing concepts of their postwar roles. He reviews the formative period of dtente, from 1965 to 1973, which witnessed the signing of major nuclear arms agreements by the superpowers, and the erosion of mutual trust in the early 1980s as the U.S. built up its military forces. The author argues that the defense buildup, particularly President Ronald Reagan's advocacy of the Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars, forced the Soviet Union to match the U.S. and thereby bankrupt itself or seek accommodation. Mikhail Gorbachev chose the latter course, ushering in the end of the Cold War. American strength of will and material resources at a critical moment in Soviet history, observes Crockatt, tipped the scales in the U.S.'s favor. A comprehensive assessment of the Cold War from a global perspective. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Another book on the Cold War? Why? Crockatt breaks no new ground here, offers no new primary source material, examines nothing from the Soviet archives. Nor does he offer anything new on the revisionist debate that has captivated Cold War historians from their earliest days. Although very readable, Crockatt's work is virtually the same as classics by John Lesis Gaddis (e.g., The Long Peace: Inquiries into the History of the Cold War, LJ 10/15/87) or Louis Halle (e.g., Cold War as History, 1971). Crockatt admits that "it will take years to unearth Soviet sources" on this topic and that consequently "many conclusions about Soviet policy must necessarily remain provisional." He should have taken the time to look more closely: the Cuban missile crisis is already being revisited in depth because of the new materials from Russia (see Anatoli Gribkov and William Smith's Operation ANADYR: U.S. and Soviet Generals Recount the Cuban Missile Crisis, LJ 1/94). This book may be good for some beginners, but most readers should start elsewhere.-John Yurechko, Georgetown Univ., Washington, D.C.

Library Journal

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Booknews

'Both capacious and judicious, sensibly organised and clearly written ... The Fifty Years' War is a work of high professionalism.' - Alex Danchev, Times Higher Education Supplement

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