The Old Cold War

James McAllister . No Exit: America and the German Problem , 1943 – 1954 . Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press , 2002 . vii+264 . Index and bibliography. $ .     

The Cultural Cold War

Book reviewed:
Hugh Wilford. The CIA, the British Left and the Cold War: Calling the Tune? London, Portland, OR: Frank Cass Publishers, 2003. xvi + 328 pp. Illustrations, index. $115.00 (cloth).     

关于冷战问题研究的几点思考

二次世界大战改变了由欧洲人支配世界近5个世纪的国际关系格局。二战时的同盟美国和苏联,战后不久便分道扬镳。形成各自的政治军事集团。在政治、军事、经济以及思想意识形态方面进行全面对抗。欧洲成为东西方冲突的焦点．是两极格局形成的标志。由于双方大搞军备竞赛,导致“冷战”在全球范围内展开。对冷战研究,西方学术界存在着不同看法,在美国有所谓“正统派”和“修正派”的学术之争,他们在冷战问题上的分歧,主要体现在政治意识形态方面。他们的观点,为研究冷战提供不同的视野。     

The Cold War in retrospect

The Cambridge history of the Cold War is a three‐volume work by 75 contributors, mostly from the United States and the United Kingdom, and is intended as ‘a substantial work of reference’ on the subject. The bulk of the text deals, in frequently overlapping chapters, with the main protagonists of the conflict—viz. the United States, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China—and the areas in which they clashed. At the same time, it aims to go ‘far beyond the narrow boundaries of diplomatic affairs’, although it is not always successful in doing so. In analysing the origins of the Cold War, the contributors pay perhaps too much attention to ideology as opposed to geopolitics, a flaw which is made easier by the absence of sufficient historical background. On the other hand, the duration of the conflict and the failure of various attempts at détente is more successfully explained in terms of the zero‐sum game nature of the conflict and its progressive extension from Europe across the rest of the world. When it comes to the end of the Cold War, the overall conclusion is that this came about through both a shift in the international balance of power following the Sino‐Soviet split and the political and economic problems of the Soviet bloc. It is generally agreed that Mikhail Gorbachev's willingness to abandon old shibboleths both at home and abroad was a major factor in bringing about the end of the conflict. The three volumes, while not always an easy read, are the outcome of considerable research and expertise in both primary and secondary sources and will repay careful study.     

The Cold War as history

Jonathan Haslam's Russia's Cold War is the latest effort by a western scholar to synthesize new research and findings on the Soviet role in the Cold War. Citing an array of published Russian archival material, Haslam seeks to resuscitate the traditional western Cold War view that the conflict was the inevitable result of communist expansionism. However, the material cited by Haslam does not support such a conclusion and he ignores conflicting evidence and views. The Cold War was a war of choice not necessity, the result of distorted perceptions and calculations by both sides, aided and abetted by generations of ideologically aligned historians.     

论冷战的历史根源

1990年11月,美国总统布什在巴黎正式宣布冷战结束。而关于冷战的讨论并没有随之完结,事实上,只有当人们从长达近半个世纪的冷战梦魇中醒来之时,才有可能将其作为一个完整的历史过程,进行全面系统的考察,重新认识其历史全貌,并对其作出恰如其分的历史定位。本文就冷战的历史根源问题谈一些新的认识。     

Towards the Cold War

ROBERT DALLEK. Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. Pp. ix, 657; DANIEL YERGIN. Shattered Peace: The Origins of the Cold War and the National Security State. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977. Pp. x, 526; JOHN H. BACKER. The Decision to Divide Germany: American Foreign Policy in Transition. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1978. Pp. x, 212; ROBERT J. DONOVAN. Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945–1948. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1977. Pp. xvii, 473; YONOSUKE NAGAI and AKIRA IRIYE, editors. The Origins of the Cold War in Asia. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1977. Pp. ix, 448; THOMAS G. PATERSON. On Every Front: The Making of the Cold War. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1979. Pp. xii, 210.     

The Cold War: How the Winner Won

Books reviewed in this article:
Scott Lucas,. Freedom's War: The American Crusade Against the Soviet Union
Gregory Mitrovich, Undermining the Kremlin: America's Strategy to Subvert the Soviet Bloc, 1947–1956
Arch Puddington, Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Libelrty