Cold War

The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
$11.95
After searching some time for a short history of the Cold War, this little gem virtually fell into my lap. Though it's very, very brief, I cannot mark it down for excluding material because it is simply meant as an introduction. Because my previous experiences of this genre have been mixed: The Wall: The People's Story, The Berlin Wall: 13 August 1961 - 9 November 1989 and The Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis, I actually approached it with some trepidation. This was particularly the case because it was written by an American.

What I got was very different from what I expected. While Gaddis approaches the subject with heavy handed jingoism, relating standard conventional wisdom, Robert McMahon delivers a very reflective style of analysis which promotes a real understanding of what was going on. I have never believed in a partisan approach to history because it only ever gives one side of the story while making the other side look ridiculous or untenable. Rather than simply saying that the Soviets did something evil and getting bogged down in a moral argument, McMahon actually explains why it happened the way it did and leaves it for the reader to judge for themselves. Without this approach it would be just another book.

He goes into some detail about the levels of political aggression on both sides but with particular reference to the rhetoric delivered by a conga line of US presidents starting with Truman and ending with Reagan. This is what makes the book unique and it is this question of American sense of proportion which takes it to another level. How bad was the threat from the USSR and how much did a level of US paranoia contribute to upping the ante? Gaddis, in contrast, is simply incapable of doing that.

In the end we learn that it was Gorbachev who was making all the concessions, usually against the will of some extremist apparatchiks and not without significant personal risk. It happened so quickly, in fact that the changes even pre-empted US pressure. The subtext of McMahon's thesis is that the traditional view that the US won the Cold War by superiority in technology and philosophy was not actually what happened. It was not the US who won but the entire world and from the point of view someone who lived through it, is a far more accurate and sympathetic analysis of what happened.

This is a great little book, as is the case with so many in this series and I wholeheartedly recommend it. It's not for everyone and if your political persuasions don't run in this direction, you probably won't like it. If you are reasonably open minded, you will end up with a far better understanding than you might from a traditional view many times the length. McMahon has enough material to easily write a book 4 times the size which would be a great source on the period and would probably be a best seller. The sooner he does it, the better because I'll be first in the queue to buy it!

Cold War Hysteria
$14.98
Almost all of the movies contained on these three discs were made by the government during the early cold war. If you are interested in either movies about nuclear tests, or survival after an attack, you will like this DVD.

It could have been organized a bit better, the movies could have been put in chronological order, for instance, so you aren't watching a movie about the H-bomb and then see something about the Hiroshima attack.

In fact, all the nuclear test videos could have been put on one disc, and another disc could have contained the movies concerning civil defense.

Some of the movies about the tests are detailed, but they tend to repeat themselves over time, and some have been edited, because- even 50 plus years after the fact- they contained some classified material.

The civil defense movies are a bit naive- everyone always survives- and if they are seperated from their family- they always turn up safe at another shelter. However, a lot of what is presented about the dangers of fallout could still come in handy in today's "dirty bomb" environment.

A couple of the movies could have been excised entirely- one called "This is not a test" is a good example. It's just a lousy movie with an A-Bomb attack as one of it's labored plot elements.

It takes 17 hours to watch all the discs, so stock up your fallout shelter and make sure you have enough batteries for your DVD player, and then enjoy.

The Cold War: A New History
$16.00
I bought this book because I was interested in a quick overview of the Cold War, from which I could choose other books to fill in the gaps on topics that I find interest me. In that respect, it is a decent book, and I have purchased two other books to continue learning ('The Making of a Counter Culture' by Theodore Roszak and 'Blacked Out' by Alasdair Roberts).

The problem with this book is that it has far too much of a 'good vs evil' theme. I would have liked to have seen more of a 'ideology vs ideology' or 'imperialist vs imperialist' theme, which would have helped go beyond simple caricatures of the two nations.

I was quite disappointed to see how much the book portrayed Gorbachev as an enlightened hero while only casually mentioning that he was quite hated in Russia. Also, there was almost no mention of Solzhenitsyn - how is that possible?

If you do decide to read this book, I suggest you supplement it with the following to help balance things out:
'Overthrow' by Stephen Kinzer
'The Two Souls of Socialism' by Hal Draper (available free online)

The US has undertaken many unethical and brutal endeavors over the past 100+ years. Also, there's strong elements of 'socialism' in nearly all industrialized nations, but without despotic regimes and popular oppression. The term 'socialism' is actually quite broad and has dramatically different meanings depending on which model you read - modern social democracy and democratic socialism have proven to provide a substantially better standard of living than what you'll find in the US.

A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon
$32.00
You can find plenty of details here on the topics this book covers, but I wanted to point out that the writing is precise, concise, and engaging. If you have interest in military aviation, missile development, the Cold War, and the advent and consequences of the ICBM, read this book. If you lived through through the Cuban Missile Crisis, or at least know what it is, read this book, If you lived through the Reagan years, resd this book. If you're interested in the forgotten heroes of U.S. postwar invention, engineering, and mathematics, read this book. If you love the film "Dr. Strangelove," read this book. It will likely spin you off to further reading. A rewarding investment of your time and mind.