Britain, the Division of Germany and the Origins of the
Cold War(Oxford, 1990). There is a large literature
looking especially at the role of the United States in the
Cold War: T, H. Anderson, The United States, Great
Britain and the Cold War(Columbia, 1981); J. L,
Gaddis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold
War, 1941–1947* (Columbia, 1972) and, by the same
author, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal
of Post-War American National Security Policy*
(Oxford, 1982), which links ideology, diplomacy and
strategic thinking, and The United States and the End of
the Cold War: Implications, Reconstructions, Provoca-
tions(Oxford, 1992). See also W. La Feber, America,
Russia and the Cold War, 1945–1992 (7th edn,
McGraw, 1992). An excellent overview is D. Yergin’s
Shattered Peace: The Origins of the Cold War and the
‘National Security State* (Penguin, 1977). See also J. L.
Gaddis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History
(Oxford University Press, 1997).
More detailed studies of special aspects include
J. Gimbel, The American Occupation of Germany:
Politics and Military, 1945–1949(Stanford, 1968); J. O.
Iatrides, Revolt in Athens: The Greek Communist
‘Second Round’ 1944–45(Princeton, 1972); W. P.
Davison, The Berlin Blockade: A Study in Cold War
Politics (Princeton, 1958); D. Cook, Forging the
Alliance: The Birth of the Nato Treaty and the Dramatic
Transformation of U.S. Foreign Policy between 1945 and
1950 * (Seeker & Warburg, 1989). The memoirs of one
of the principal architects of the alliance should be read:
Dean Acheson, Present at the Creation* (Norton,
1969). See also R. Garthoff, Detente and Confrontation:
American–Soviet Relations from Nixon to Reagan
(Brookings, 1985); A. Grosser, The Western Alliance:
European–American Relations since 1945* (Macmillan,
1980). See also the special issue of the journal
Diplomacy and Statecraftedited by D. Armstrong and
E. Goldstein (Cass) vol. 1, number 3, November 1990,
which is devoted to the Cold War. For the Soviet side
(which with the opening of the Soviet archives will be
reassessed), see V. Mastny, Russia’s Road to the Cold
War(Columbia, 1979). See also section 17, The Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe since the Second World
War. For early glimpses from the archives of the former
Soviet Union, see C. M. Andrew and O. Gordievsky,
KGB: Inside Story* (HarperCollins, 1990).
In Asia, the Cold War moved to real war. A. Iriye, The
Cold War in Asia: A Historical Introduction(Prentice
Hall, 1974); P. Lowe, The Origins of the Korean War*
(Longman, 1986); P. Lowe, The Korean War(New
York, St Martins Press, 2000); Max Hastings, The
Korean War* (Pan, 1988); A. Short, The Origins of the
Vietnam War* (Longman, 1989); G. C. Herring,
America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam,
1950–75* (2nd edn, McGraw, 1986); S. Karnow,
Vietnam: A History* (Penguin, 1984); W. Shawcross,
Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of
Cambodia* (Simon & Schuster, 1981). The miscalcula-
tions of US policymakers in devising policy in Vietnam
are analysed in L. Cable, Unholy Grail: The U.S. and the
Wars in Vietnam, 1965–8(Routledge, 1991).
The Cuban missile crisis is described by an insider in
Robert F. Kennedy, The Cuban Missile Crisis, October
1962: Thirteen Days* (Pan, 1969). The best account
is M. R. Beschloss, The Crisis Years: Kennedy and
Khrushchev, 1960–1963(Harper-Collins, 1991) A highly
critical account of America’s overall policies towards
Cuba is M. H. Morley, Imperial State and Revolution:
The United States and Cuba, 1952–1986* (Cambridge,
1987). See also section 16, The United States during the
Post-war Years. For new light on the Cuban missile cri-
sis based on Soviet records see Aleksander Fursenko and
Timothy Naftali, The Secret History of the Cuban Missile
Crisis. ‘One Hell of a Gamble’ (John Murray, 1997); also
a fascinating full record in E. R. May and P. D. Zelikow,
The Kennedy Tapes. Inside the White House During the
Cuban Missile Crisis(Harvard, 1997)
16 THE UNITED STATES DURING THE
POST-WAR YEARS
Interesting overviews are D. J. Boorstin, The Americans:
The Democratic Experience* (Random House, 1974);
Carl Degler, The Democratic Experience: An American
History(vol. 2, 5th edn, Glenview, 1981) and, for the
growth of prosperity, W. E. Brownlee, Dynamics of
Ascent A History of the American Economy* (2nd edn,
Wadsworth, 1988). See also J. K. Galbraith, The
Affluent Society(2nd edn, Hamish Hamilton, 1969). A
first-rate overview of social history is R. Polenherg, One
Nation Divisible: Class, Race, and Ethnicity in the
United States since 1938* (Penguin, 1980). More spe-
cialised is L. Banner, Woman in Modern America: A
Brief History(Harcourt Brace, 1974).
For the Truman presidency there is a two-volume
study by R. I. Donovan, Conflict and Crisis: The
Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945–1948(Norton,
1977) and Tumultuous Years: The Presidency of Harry S.
Truman, 1949–1953 (Norton, 1982). There is also a
new one-volume biography from birth to death, D.
McCullough, Truman(Simon & Schuster, 1992).
McCarthyism and the Cold War anti-communist
drive which took forms subverting civil rights led to an
extensive literature, among them D. Caute, The Great
Fear: The Anti-Communist Purge under Truman and
Eisenhower(Seeker & Warburg, 1978). The Eisenhower
years can be studied in S. E. Ambrose, Eisenhower(2
vols, Simon & Schuster, 1983–4). Two sympathetic
studies are A. M. Schlesinger Jr, A Thousand Days: John
F. Kennedy in the White House(Houghton Muffin,
1965) and T. C. Sorensen, Kennedy(Harper, 1965).
See also H. S. Parmet, J.F.K: The Presidency of John
F. Kennedy* (Penguin, 1984). J. Bernstein, Guns or
Butter. The Presidency of Lyndon Johnson(Oxford,
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