The End Of The Cold War: 1985 - 1991

Product Description

The Cold War had seemed like a permanent fixture in global politics & until its denouement no Western or Soviet politician foresaw that the st&-off between the two superpowers
- after decades of struggle over every aspect of security politics economics & ideas
- would end in their lifetimes Even after March 1985 when Mikhail Gorbachev 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 & 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 & Mikhail Gorbachev Secretary of State George Shultz & 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 & Soviet long-term decline & 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 & meticulously researched this is political history at its best