The Cold War

In 1950, when Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh and Kim Il - Sung met in Moscow to discuss the future, they had reason to feel optimistic. International communism seemed on the offensive, all of Eastern Europe was securely in the Soviet camp, America's monopoly on nuclear weapons was a thing of the past, and Mao's forces had assumed control over the world's most populous country. In fact, of course, the century's end brought the widespread triumph of political and economic freedom over its ideological enemies. In The Cold War, John Lewis Gaddis makes a major contribution to our understanding of this epochal story. Beginning with WWII and ending with the collapse of the Soviet Union, he provides a thrilling account of the strategic dynamics that drove the age. Now, as Britain once more finds itself in a global confrontation with an implacable ideological enemy, The Cold War tells a story with lessons which it is vital to understand.