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

by Crockatt,Richard

• ISBN13: 9780415104715
• ISBN10: 0415104718
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-12-20
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

For fifty years, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were the deciding factor in international affairs. War against Germany brought them together in 1941 in an alliance that was decisive in securing Germany's defeat. Victory ultimately drove them apart, giving rise to the continuous, if fluctuating, antagonism that was known as the Cold War. In 1991, following the collapse of communism and the re-drawing of the political map of central Europe, the Soviet Union itself disintegrated and with it the Cold War. Only now is it possible to view these years as a defined period of history. 7LThe Fifty Years Waris an insightful examination of the complex relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, placing it in its global context. Richard Crockatt breaks new ground in seeking a synthesis of historical narrative and analysis of the global structures within which superpower relations developed. Crockett also looks at the role economics playedin this relationship as well as political and military factors. The Fifty Years Waris an authoritative and comprehensive history of the Cold War years and the relationship that has dominated world politics in the second half of the twentieth century.

Table of Contents

List of figures	ix
Preface to the paperback edition	xi
Preface and acknowledgements	xiii
List of abbreviations	xvii
Part I Perspectives
Introduction: The Fifty Years War	3	(12)
A question of scale	4	(3)
The cold war and international politics	7	(8)
The American and Soviet Foreign Policy Traditions	15	(24)
The United States	15	(10)
Russia and the Soviet Union	25	(14)
Part II the emergence of a bipolar world, 1941-1953
Introduction	37	(2)
The Second World War and the Struggle for Peace, 1941-1946	39	(25)
Globalism and the changing balance of power	39	(3)
The Grand Alliance and the war in Europe	42	(4)
The disintegration of the wartime alliance	46	(12)
1946: Domestic politics and international conflict	58	(6)
Two Ways of Life: The Cold War in Europe, 1947-1953	64	(25)
Perspectives on the origins of the cold war	64	(8)
Containment and the Truman Doctrine	72	(4)
The Marshall Plan, Germany, and the division of Europe, 1947-1949	76	(4)
NATO, NSC 68 and the militraization of containment	80	(4)
Stalinism and the cold war at home and abroad, 1947-1953	84	(3)
Conclusion	87	(2)
Cold War: The Far Eastern Dimension, 1945-1953	89	(25)
Asia and Europe compared	89	(2)
Defining superpower interests in Asia	91	(2)
McCarthyism and the Far Eastern turn in American policy	93	(2)
China and the ferment in Asia, 1945-1950	95	(4)
The American occupation of Japan	99	(1)
The Korean War	100	(7)
Conclusion	107	(7)
Part III Globalism and the limits of bipolarity, 1953-1964
Introduction	111	(3)
Peaceful Coexistence and Irreconcilable Conflict, 1953-1964	114	(24)
The economics of superpower status	114	(3)
De-Stalinization and international communism, 1953-1964	117	(6)
The Eisenhower administration and the new Soviet leadership	123	(2)
Towards the Geneva summit	125	(2)
The Geneva summit	127	(2)
Crisis and its meaning, 1956-1961	129	(2)
Kennedy and Khrushchev	131	(7)
The Nuclear Arms Race, 1945-1963	138	(29)
Introduction	138	(3)
American nuclear strategy	141	(8)
Soviet nuclear strategy	149	(3)
Disarmament or arms control?	152	(6)
The Cuban missile crisis	158	(9)
The United States, the Soviet Union and the Third World, 1953-1963	167	(40)
Patterns of dependence and independence	167	(6)
The suberpowers and the Third World: basic assumptions	173	(3)
The Middle East: Iran, Suez, and Lebanon	176	(7)
Southwest Asia	183	(6)
Latin America: Guatemala and Cuba	189	(8)
Africa: The Congo	197	(2)
Conclusion	199	(8)
Part IV Detente and its limits, 1965-1981
Introduction	203	(4)
Detente in the Making, 1965-1973	207	(28)
The international environment	207	(9)
The domestic dimensions of detente	216	(3)
Detente: The theory	219	(5)
Detente: The practice	224	(10)
Conclusion	234	(1)
The Vietnam War and the Superpower Triangle	235	(18)
Introduction	235	(1)
Vietnam and the American national interest	236	(9)
North Vietnam and Sino-Soviet conflict	245	(1)
The American opening to China	246	(4)
Vietnam: The costs of victory	250	(3)
Detente Under Pressure, 1973-1981	253	(52)
Introduction	253	(1)
The United States: a nation in irons?	254	(3)
The Soviet Union: a nation unchained?	257	(3)
Arms control and the strategic nuclear debate, 1974-1981	260	(8)
European dilemmas: West and East	268	(11)
Irrepressible conflict: The Third World	279	(19)
Conclusion	298	(7)
Part V Cold war versus international politics: The denouement, 1981-1991
Introduction	301	(4)
Reaganism and the Spectre of Communism	305	(33)
Transitions of power	305	(5)
The economics of superpower status revisited	310	(5)
Arms and the man	315	(9)
The troubled Western Alliance	324	(7)
The superpowers, the Middle East, and Central America	331	(6)
Conclusion	337	(1)
Gorbachev and the New World Disorder, 1985-1991	338	(31)
Introduction	338	(2)
The Soviet Union and the collapse of communism	340	(10)
Eastern Europe in revolution	350	(6)
The United States, the Soviet Union, and the end of the Cold War	356	(10)
The end of the cold war and the wider world	366	(3)
Conclusion	369	(10)
The issue of stability	369	(2)
The shape of things to come	371	(8)
Notes	379	(2)
Bibliographical note	381	(3)
Bibliography	384	(15)
Index	399