Research Guide: Cold War: EE Guide: Finding a Topic

The cold war was a matter of personalities as well as policies. From the 1940s through the 1980s, Paul Nitze and George Kennan were central actors at opposite poles. Nitze was the hawk. In the darkest days of the nuclear arms race, he argued that the way to avoid an atomic war was to prepare to win it. Few policymakers matched either his knowledge of weaponry or his persuasive skills. Even fewer matched Nitze's ability to alienate superiors, but his talent could not be overlooked for long. George Kennan was the dove, consistently arguing that the U.S. must end its reliance on nuclear weapons, advocating forbearance in the face of provocation. He had an unusual ability to forecast events: the Sino-Soviet split, the way the cold war would eventually end. In these days of personalized polarization, the close friendship between these two men seems anomalous—but instructive. That Thompson is Nitze's grandson does not inhibit his nuanced account of two men whose common goal of serving America's interests transcended perspectives. Their mutual respect and close friendship enabled administrations to balance their contributions. That balancing in turn significantly shaped the cold war's outcome.

We also come to understand how the arms race caused new alignments and shifts in domestic power. As the United States became the national security state, California, which had a population of five million at the start of the Cold War, grew to thirty million and, by the 1980s provided one in every ten members of Congress and two presidents.

Using newly opened Kremlin archives and his own experiences in the field, Martin Walker has written a brilliant analysis of the conflict that has shaped the contemporary world.

The Cold War was a time that saw many new technologies emerge. Among them were ballistic missiles, the M1 Abrams tank, and the television. This book details the events of the Cold War, the need for these technologies, and the impact these advancements had on societies of the past as well as today.

In what may be the best analysis of how international relations affected any domestic issue, Mary Dudziak interprets postwar civil rights as a Cold War feature. She argues that the Cold War helped facilitate key social reforms, including desegregation. Civil rights activists gained tremendous advantage as the government sought to polish its international image. But improving the nation's reputation did not always require real change. This focus on image rather than substance--combined with constraints on McCarthy-era political activism and the triumph of law-and-order rhetoric--limited the nature and extent of progress.

Examines how the Cold War intersected with the final destruction of global white supremacy, focusing on how southern Africa and the American South fought against racial discrimination.

Chronicles China's involvement in the Cold War under Mao, discussing such topics as the Chinese Civil War in 1945-46 and China's role in the Korean War, the First Indochina War, the Polish and Hungarian Crises of 1956, the Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1958, the Vietnam War, and the Sino-American rapprochement in the early 1970s.

Through unprecedented archival research and gripping personal testimonies, Grandin uncovers the hidden history of the Latin American Cold War: of hidebound reactionaries intent on holding on to their own power and privilege; of Mayan Marxists, blending indigenous notions of justice with universal ideas of freedom and equality; and of a United States supporting new styles of state terror throughout the continent. Drawing from declassified U.S. documents, Grandin exposes Washington's involvement in the 1966 secret execution of more than thirty Guatemalan leftists, which, he argues, prefigured the later wave of disappearances in Chile and Argentina.

Impassioned but judicious, The Last Colonial Massacre is history of the highest order—a work that will dramatically recast our understanding of Latin American politics and the triumphal role of the United States in the Cold War and beyond.

Between 1945 and 1991, tension between the USA, its allies, and a group of nations led by the USSR, dominated world politics. This period was called the Cold War – a conflict that stopped short to a full-blown war.

Benefiting from the recent research of newly open archives, the Encyclopedia of the Cold War discusses how this state of perpetual tensions arose, developed, and was resolved. This work examines the military, economic, diplomatic, and political evolution of the conflict as well as its impact on the different regions and cultures of the world. Using a unique geopolitical approach that will present Russian perspectives and others, the work covers all aspects of the Cold War, from communism to nuclear escalation and from UFOs to red diaper babies, highlighting its vast-ranging and lasting impact on international relations as well as on daily life. Although the work will focus on the 1945–1991 period, it will explore the roots of the conflict, starting with the formation of the Soviet state, and its legacy to the present day.

Addresses heavily debated questions by offering different critical perspectives on major historical events, drawn from all time periods and from all parts of the globe. This volume covers the Red Scare after 1945. Provides students with an enhanced understanding of events only summarized in history texts, helps stimulate critical thinking and provides ideas for papers and assignments.

Encyclopedia of Cold War Politics is a concise yet comprehensive AtoZ reference on the period from World War II to the demise of the Soviet Union. Its 700 entries, varying in length from 100 to 2,500 words, cover events, organizations and institutions, individuals and groups, ideas and concepts, publications and documents, and more. A comprehensive reference to American political life during the Cold War and the perfect companion volume to Facts On File's Cold War Culture, Encyclopedia of Cold War Politics conveys not only the facts, but the flavor and atmosphere of an era now beginning to come into focus as history.

fficially lasted from 1945 to 1991; however, many operations and individual spies often are found beyond these dates, with some previously unknown operations and names having surfaced only recently. Based on all the latest research, the core part of the book consists of over 330 individual entries that include biographical accounts of the lives and operations the individual spies and secret agents took part in.

In support of the entries, the book provides important useful tools: a complete chronology of significant espionage activities; a glossary of key terms and figures providing additional background to the entries; references to other sources, either in print or electronic formats; and extensive cross-references for all entries. Reaching as far back as 1917 and the Soviet seizure of power in Russia, Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations covers the entire range of Soviet Bloc and Western espionage. The book explores in depth the critical cold war years, 1945–1991, alongside all the extended ramifications of espionage, up to the spies and operations most recently unveiled.

The bulk of the entries centers on the cold war conflict of the United States and NATO-allied countries against the USSR and Communist China, though many other countries were involved in cold war espionage operations as well. Selected fictional characters and operations created by John LeCarré, Ian Fleming, and Robert Littell are also included in a separate section due to the image, accurate or imaginary, of the intelligence operative that was either reviled by the professionals or enthusiastically embraced by the general public.

Studies of the Cold War often focus on the political power players who shaped American/Soviet relations. Cold War and McCarthy Era: People and Perspectives shifts the spotlight to show how the fear of a Soviet attack and Communist infiltration affected the daily life of everyday Americans.

Cold War and McCarthy Era gauges the impact of McCarthyism on a wide range of citizens. Chapters examine Cold War-era popular culture as well as the community-based Civil Defense Societies. Essays, key primary documents, and other reference tools further readers' understanding of how official reactions to Communist threats, both real and perceived, altered every aspect of American society.

This comprehensive collection of over 130 carefully edited documents (speeches, treaties, statements, and articles) traces the rise and fall of the Cold War -- from its roots at Yalta and Potsdam in 1945 through the collapse of the Soviet state in 1991 -- making the great events of era come alive through the words and phrases of those who were actively involved. KEY TOPICS: Covers The Origins of the Cold War; The Nuclear Arms Race; The U-2 Affair; The Berlin Wall; The Cuban Missile Crisis; The Korean and Vietnam Wars; The Sino-Soviet Split; The End of the Cold War. Draws selections from a variety of countries and leaders on both sides of the Iron Curtain and treats the entire Cold War as an era in world history, not just U.S. history. Precedes each document and event with a concise but thorough introduction that explains its background and significance, places it in its proper historical context, and conveys the flavor and fervor of the developments that surrounded it.

Contains nineteen essays that provide information about the Cold War, discussing the origins and early years of the conflict, Cold War hot spots, and the end of American support for detente and the last years of the Soviet Union. Includes personal reflections on the Cold War.

A global perspective analyzing the influence of the Cold War on world politics, economics, and military affairs in the twentieth-first-century, focusing on the effects of the Third World policies of the United States and the Soviet Union.

Reveals the CIA's secret fifty-year effort to develop new forms of torture, explaining how psychological torture has been used in interrogations over the years.

Discusses the 1981 massacre in El Mozote, El Salvador by American-trained Salvadoran soldiers that killed hundreds of men, women, and children, and describes how the American government reacted to the incident.

Presents eighteen primary and secondary documents on significant events in world history between 1960 and 1980, including the introduction of the birth control pill, John F. Kennedy's assassination, the moon landing, the Beatles' first "Ed Sullivan Show" appearance, and the fall of Saigon.

An English translation of the French text in which the author discusses the consequences and aftermath of the Communist revolution.

Addresses heavily debated questions by offering different critical perspectives on major historical events, drawn from all time periods and from all parts of the globe.

Studies the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union and discusses the policies that helped that relationship develop.

Discusses the history of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union focusing on how President Roosevelt was able to please Stalin and Churchill but explores how after Roosevelt's death President Truman lost the good communication that had developed between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Discusses the rise of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiments that began in the United States during the end of the Cold War and have continued to rise through the Bush administration's War on Terror and the early twenty-first century.

Describes what is being done to monuments and buildings erected during times of political division in Berlin, focusing on structures of significance in the Nazi and Cold War eras. Includes insights into the history of Berlin, as well as a chronology of events from the thirteenth century to the year 1995.

The "dean of Cold War historians" (The New York Times) now presents the definitive account of the global confrontation that dominated the last half of the twentieth century. Drawing on newly opened archives and the reminiscences of the major players, John Lewis Gaddis explains not just what happened but why—from the months in 1945 when the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. went from alliance to antagonism to the barely averted holocaust of the Cuban Missile Crisis to the maneuvers of Nixon and Mao, Reagan and Gorbachev. Brilliant, accessible, almost Shakespearean in its drama, The Cold War stands as a triumphant summation of the era that, more than any other, shaped our own.

From Neil Sheehan, author of the Pulitzer Prize—winning classic A Bright Shining Lie, comes this long-awaited, magnificent epic. Here is the never-before-told story of the nuclear arms race that changed history–and of the visionary American Air Force officer Bernard Schriever, who led the high-stakes effort. A Fiery Peace in a Cold War is a masterly work about Schriever’s quests to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring nuclear superiority, to penetrate and exploit space for America, and to build the first weapons meant to deter an atomic holocaust rather than to be fired in anger.

The first full account of how the Cold War arms race finally came to a close, this riveting narrative history sheds new light on the people who struggled to end this era of massive overkill, and examines the legacy of the nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that remain a threat today.

Drawing on memoirs, interviews in both Russia and the US, and classified documents from deep inside the Kremlin, David E. Hoffman examines the inner motives and secret decisions of each side and details the deadly stockpiles that remained unsecured as the Soviet Union collapsed. This is the fascinating story of how Reagan, Gorbachev, and a previously unheralded collection of scientists, soldiers, diplomats, and spies changed the course of history.

The author relies on recently published government records and FBI files to reveal the myths surrounding Joseph McCarthy and his political campaign to uncover Communist sympathizers in America during the 1950s.