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The Fifty Year Wound: The True Price of America's Cold War Victory
The Fifty Year Wound The True Price of America's Cold War Victory Author:Derek Leebaert What did the Cold War, that ongoing near-apocalypse, do to America? To the rest of the shaken world? What was mean lost, what was nobly gained? How does all this prepare us for what lies ahead? THE FIFTY YEAR WOUND is the first book to show how the Cold War was fought from start to finish, how it was won in its final, most dangerous decade, ... more »and what this all means for us today. Drawing upon U.S. and Russian sources only now coming to light, Derek Leebaert challenges a range of widely-believed "truths": from the assumptions Americans formed at the beginning of the journey, to the origins and outcomes of the bloodletting of Korea and Vietnam, to the Cuban missile crisis, to the noisily acclaimed "detentes" with Russia and China, through arms race after arms race, to the dreamlike end. Spanning Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Afric, THE FIFTY YEAR WOUND spectacularly illuminates the reality behind our commitments and entanglements. Leebaert takes us through trade wars and trade lies, high tech marvels and fuzzy finance, poignant sacrifices and dirty compromises; and ceaseless face-off with the most powerful tyranny in all history. Many of the reputations of the most famous figures of this shadow age are reassessed; the often too passively accepted roles of elites and governments reexamined; and much of the ability of U.S. intelligence exposed to serious reconsideration. The result is a fascinating look backwards, that is also a vital roadmap to a startlingly different world after 9/11.« less