The Cold War Review - Essay Example

Book review In the cold war A New History written by the unites states’ cold war historian , John Lewis Gaddis traces the relations between the united states and soviet union from world war ii until the fall of the USSR- Union of Soviet Socialist republics. Gaddis wrote this book to serve as a readable synthesis and a concise of cold war history for his students –undergraduates- at the Yale University, most of who were very young and could barely understand anything when the Berlin wall came down. He writes in his book that his students have very little knowledge on how the cold war begun, what it was about or why it had to end the way it did. He further jots that for them it is nothing more than history: not all that diverse from the Peloponnesian War. He has channeled this insight into publishing this book that gives a valuable overview, in spite of an individual’s proximity to the Cold War. He outlines three vital lessons of the cold war. First, it was in period of cold war that the military strength stopped to be defining attribute of power itself, which it had been for the past 500 years. Gaddis’ clearest explanation of this phenomenon is the fact: even after the USSR collapsed, it still had its nuclear power and military into place (Gaddis, p14). Gaddis illustrates prior to 1945, great countries fought great wars so often that they tended to be permanent features of the transnational landscape: Lenin even relied or depended on them to give the mechanisms by which capitalism would-self destruct. However, after 1945 wars were limited to those between smaller powers and superpowers, as in vitenam, Korea and Afghanistan or to wars among smaller powers. What never occurred, in spite of world fears that it might, was a full force war involving the Soviet Union, United States and their respective allies. For the first time since timely memorial, no one could be assured of triumph, or surviving a big war. Second, the cold war discouraged dictatorship. Gaddis points out that even though china, the USSR and several states in Europe had authoritarian governments back in 1948 when a well-known book about totalitarian world, 1984, by George Orwell got published, the systems did not extend to the other countries. As 20th century was about to elapse, communism fell out of favor since it failed in delivering its promise of making the workers live better. Third, the cold war period, experienced globalization of democracy, explained by the growing number of democracies as the 20th century was elapsing (Gaddis, p82). Gaddis hypothesizes that the void of both economic depressions and great wars doubled with increased levels of the world’s literacy and policy decisions to enhance democracy led to the spread of democracy. For him, ideology, both democratic and Marxist-Leninist played an important role in the cold war, one that is traditionally underestimated and underrated by the cold war historians. with reference to historiography, the first group of the cold war historians looked at Stalin and his ambition to dominate Europe as the main cause of cold war. In 1950s and 1960s, cold war scholars who were trying to revise the documented content thought that, cold war started because the extension United States’ interests led the USSR to embrace a defensive stance. In 1970s, a cold war scholar and a post- revisionist, Gaddis, viewed the genesis of the cold war as an outcome conflicting interests and misperceptions between two super powers. In the book ‘We Now Know’ written by Gaddis in 1997, he stressed the function of democratic values and the differences of how the united states those in her favor and how the soviet union dealt with its allies from the eastern Europe as essential factors in the result of the cold war. Gaddis illustrates the The Cold War: A History does not give any new interpretation or sources that are different from his last six books on cold war, but he does embrace a new approach that incorporates creative writing and anecdotes, with cruise of designing the text readable and fresh. For instance, Gaddis starts his narrative with a tale about George Orwell writing 1984 back in 1946 while residing at an isolated cabin in Scottish aisle (Orwell, p83). Moreover, Gaddis integrates a fictional account of the Korean War that involves great nuclear attacks on numerous fronts in order to picture what could have been. Gaddis views on cold war on this new book talks about the contribution of the globe leaders such as Margret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II with Ronald Regan as the anecdotes hero and Mikhail Gorbachev playing as a minor character. However, Gaddis is very careful to name out that the ordinary individuals such as the Poles, Hungarians and East Germans were very instrumental and played an essential part in the terminating of the cold war. His sources integrates translated documented material from the soviet archives opened in the 1990s,however he did not make visitations to these archive neither did he employ the foreign languages sources, and he has been critiqued on the basis of these two cons. Gaddi’s view in the Cold war: A History shows how we are subjects to the viewpoints and experience of our generation and how essential it is to be aware of recent history. Gaddis is probably tongue in cheek in his comment that his students – the undergraduates- view cold war as history similar to Peloponnesian War, yet it does bear uttering that, the legacy of the cold war still exists to date as opposed to the Peloponnesian War. The “axis of evil” under George W. Bush’s administration has replaced the cold war’s ‘greater evil’. The fact that the United States of America in the past, endorsed leaders like Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein during the cold war period is wrong if assumed in light of our today landscape. Surprisingly, the administration of bush having alienated USA’s allies in the old Europe has benefited growth popularity in the new Europe. It should also be taken into account that Gaddis has become George. W. bush’s favorite historian, consulting with him before his second presidential inaugural address about endorsing democracy in the Middle East during this new era of world terrorism (Gaddis, p48. Clearly, the legacy of cold war still exists. In conclusion, I think Gibbs is right : he illustrates the how The Cold War: A History does not give any new interpretation or sources that are different from his last six books on cold war, but he does embrace a new approach that incorporates creative writing and anecdotes, with cruise of designing the text readable and fresh. He might have not visited the archives, either way I think he got his facts right. Work cited Harper, John Lamberton. The Cold War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print. Sewell, Mike. The Cold War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print. Gaddis, John Lewis. The Cold War. new yor: Penguin Books Limited, 2011. Gaddis, John lewis. We now know: rethinking Cold War history. new york: Clarendon Press, 1997.print. Orwell, George. 1984. new york: 1st World Publishing, 2004.print. Read More