Turning Points in Ending the Cold War
Kiron K. Skinner
Hoover Press
Twenty years ago, as the United States and the Soviet Union were sliding into yet another round of dangerous confrontation, no one could have imagined that only a decade later the cold war would be over and that Russia and the West would embark on an unprecedented course of economic, political, and military cooperation. How did it happen? The essays in this collection offer illuminating insights into the key players--Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and others--and the monumental events that led to the collapse of communism. The expert contributors examine the end of dtente and the beginning of the new phase of the cold war in the early 1980s, when U.S.-Soviet relations seemed to hit a new low. They detail Reagan's radical new strategies aimed at changing Soviet behavior. And they analyze the essence and origins of Mikhail Gorbachev's "new political thinking"--his realization that the cold war was not in Russia's interest and could not end unless his country changed itself-and its critical role in the ultimate transformation of the Soviet Union. In addition the authors describe the peaceful democratic revolutions in Poland and Hungary, the events that brought about the reunification of Germany, the role of events in Third World countries, the critical contributions of Yeltsin, and more.