The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Rating:
Summary: Good on the Facts but Limitied in its Understanding
Review: Although McMahon hits all of the salient events in the Cold War, he views the Cold War as a rivalry only between the USA and USSR, one in which their respective allies have little or no abiding national interest but, with few exceptions, act at the direction of their overseers in Washington and Moscow. Perhaps a broader analysis of the multiple national interests in the Cold War would give the work a dimension that could not qualify as a "very short introduction." But that doesn't seem to be McMahon's issue. He defines the Cold War solely in terms of a conflict between the superpowers:

"In brief, it was the divergent aspirations, needs, histories, governing institutions, and ideologies of the Untied States and the Soviet Union that turned unavoidable tensions into the epic four-decade confrontation that we call the Cold War" (p. 5).

McMahon is quite good when he shows how the conflicts in the Cold War were principally played out through third-world countries. He needs to discuss a bit more the frequent devastating effects the conflict had for the lives, prosperity, sovereignty and dignity of the people in these nations. Multiple millions of people died as a result of the international chess game among the major powers.

McMahon is one of the few writers to point out that Stalin offered the West a unified Germany with free elections as long as Germany was demilitarized (much like Japan was after World War 2) and was not a part of NATO, reasonable conditions given that Germany had invaded Russia twice in the 20th century. But the USA turned down the deal thinking that an armed partitioned West Germany met the USA's strategic interest by providing an advanced front line abutting the Warsaw Pact nations.

McMahon gets high marks for showing that it was principally the unilateral actions taken by Gorbachev that led to the end of Cold War and not, as in the USA propagandists' fantasy, Ronald Reagan.


Rating:
Summary: The ideal introduction to the Cold War
Review: McMahon presents this survey of the Cold War with authority, insight, and balance. He takes us from the events of WWII that set the scene, to the US and Soviet disagreement over the disposition of Germany after the war, to the competing ideologies that led to a global competition, to the detente of the 70's, and to the end of the Cold War. He puts the key events and players in their correct Cold War perspective, and he doesn't shrink from making moral judgements along the way. I came away with a much firmer grasp on this important episode in our history.