The End of the Cold War: 1985 - 1991
Oct 2015 · Pan Macmillan
3.5star
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About this ebook
The Cold War had seemed like a permanent fixture in global politics, and until its denouement, no Western or Soviet politician foresaw that the stand-off between the two superpowers - after decades of struggle over every aspect of security, politics, economics and ideas - would end in their lifetimes. Even after March 1985 when Mikhail Gorbachëv became the leader of the Soviet Union it was not preordained that global nuclear Armageddon could or would be averted peaceably.
But just four years later, the Berlin Wall was dismantled and perestroika spread throughout the former Soviet bloc. It was a sea change in world history, which resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Drawing on pioneering archival research, Robert Service's gripping new investigation of the final years of the Cold War pinpoints the astonishing relationships among President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachëv, Secretary of State George Shultz and the USSR's last Foreign Affairs Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, who found a way to cooperate during times of extraordinary change around the world. The story is of American pressure and Soviet long-term decline and over-stretch. The End of the Cold War shows how that small, skillful group of statesmen were determined to end the Cold War on their watch. In the process, they irreversibly transformed the global geopolitical landscape.
Authoritative, compelling and meticulously researched, this is political history at its best.
But just four years later, the Berlin Wall was dismantled and perestroika spread throughout the former Soviet bloc. It was a sea change in world history, which resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Drawing on pioneering archival research, Robert Service's gripping new investigation of the final years of the Cold War pinpoints the astonishing relationships among President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachëv, Secretary of State George Shultz and the USSR's last Foreign Affairs Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, who found a way to cooperate during times of extraordinary change around the world. The story is of American pressure and Soviet long-term decline and over-stretch. The End of the Cold War shows how that small, skillful group of statesmen were determined to end the Cold War on their watch. In the process, they irreversibly transformed the global geopolitical landscape.
Authoritative, compelling and meticulously researched, this is political history at its best.
Ratings and reviews
3.5
2 reviews
Gideon Saunders
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March 13, 2022
This book is an exhaustive account of the correspondence between East and West and the efforts of Reagan and Gorbachev to de-escalate the Cold War at the end of the 80s. It provides a painstaking (at times tedious) account of the preparation for each international summit involving East-West relations. What this book doesn't do is explain why this process happened. Basically, we are told that Gorbachev wanted to end the Cold War because the Soviet economy was "bad". Why it was bad is never really addressed. Likewise we are told there were "hard liners" who resisted Gorbachev and domestic criticism of his actions without ever really understanding why this occurred. This is frustrating and makes it all seem incomplete. This is most apparent at the climax: The last 6 months of the USSR, involving the rise of Yeltsin, a failed coup and the independence movement are dealt with in less than 10 pages. Considering how fascinating these events also were, this is a major disappointment.
About the author
Robert Service is a fellow of the British Academy and of St Antony's College, Oxford, where he is Professor of Russian History; he is also a visiting fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He has written several books, including the highly acclaimed Lenin: A Biography, Russia: Experiment with a People, Stalin: A Biography, Comrades: A History of World Communism, Trotsky: A Biography, which won the 2009 Duff Cooper Prize, and, most recently, Spies and Commissars. He lives in London.
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