The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

201 Pages·2003·3.21 MB·English

The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction
‘McMahon has produced a commanding short narrative of a vital
period in recent world history. Clear, concise, and compelling, The Cold
War is a superb primer on the subject.’
Fredrik Logevall, University of California, Santa Barbara
Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating
and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have
been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.
The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics
in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next
few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short
Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to
conceptual art and cosmology.
Very Short Introductions available now:
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Continental Philosophy
Julia Annas Simon Critchley
THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE COSMOLOGY Peter Coles
John Blair CRYPTOGRAPHY
ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia Fred Piper and Sean Murphy
ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn DADA AND SURREALISM
ARCHITECTURE David Hopkins
Andrew Ballantyne Darwin Jonathan Howard
ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Democracy Bernard Crick
ART HISTORY Dana Arnold DESCARTES Tom Sorell
ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DRUGS Leslie Iversen
THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH Martin Redfern
ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY
Atheism Julian Baggini Geraldine Pinch
Augustine Henry Chadwick EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
BARTHES Jonathan Culler BRITAIN Paul Langford
THE BIBLE John Riches THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball
BRITISH POLITICS EMOTION Dylan Evans
Anthony Wright EMPIRE Stephen Howe
Buddha Michael Carrithers ENGELS Terrell Carver
BUDDHISM Damien Keown Ethics Simon Blackburn
CAPITALISM James Fulcher The European Union
THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe John Pinder
CHOICE THEORY EVOLUTION
Michael Allingham Brian and Deborah Charlesworth
CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson FASCISM Kevin Passmore
CLASSICS Mary Beard and THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
John Henderson William Doyle
CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard Freud Anthony Storr
THE COLD WAR Galileo Stillman Drake
Robert McMahon Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh
GLOBALIZATION PLATO Julia Annas
Manfred Steger POLITICS Kenneth Minogue
HEGEL Peter Singer POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood David Miller
HINDUISM Kim Knott POSTCOLONIALISM
HISTORY John H. Arnold Robert Young
HOBBES Richard Tuck POSTMODERNISM
HUME A. J. Ayer Christopher Butler
IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden POSTSTRUCTURALISM
Indian Philosophy Catherine Belsey
Sue Hamilton PREHISTORY Chris Gosden
Intelligence Ian J. Deary PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY
ISLAM Malise Ruthven Catherine Osborne
JUDAISM Norman Solomon Psychology Gillian Butler and
Jung Anthony Stevens Freda McManus
KANT Roger Scruton QUANTUM THEORY
KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner John Polkinghorne
THE KORAN Michael Cook ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway
LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler
LITERARY THEORY RUSSELL A. C. Grayling
Jonathan Culler RUSSIAN LITERATURE
LOCKE John Dunn Catriona Kelly
LOGIC Graham Priest THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner S. A. Smith
MARX Peter Singer SCHIZOPHRENIA
MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone
MEDIEVAL BRITAIN SCHOPENHAUER
John Gillingham and Christopher Janaway
Ralph A. Griffiths SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer
MODERN IRELAND SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
Senia Pasˇeta ANTHROPOLOGY
MOLECULES Philip Ball John Monaghan and Peter Just
MUSIC Nicholas Cook SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce
NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner Socrates C. C. W. Taylor
NINETEENTH-CENTURY SPINOZA Roger Scruton
BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and STUART BRITAIN John Morrill
H. C. G. Matthew TERRORISM Charles Townshend
NORTHERN IRELAND THEOLOGY David F. Ford
Marc Mulholland THE TUDORS John Guy
paul E. P. Sanders TWENTIETH-CENTURY
Philosophy Edward Craig BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling
Samir Okasha WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman
Available soon:
AFRICAN HISTORY HIEROGLYPHS
John Parker and Richard Rathbone Penelope Wilson
ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson
THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea HUMAN EVOLUTION
BUDDHIST ETHICS Bernard Wood
Damien Keown INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
CHAOS Leonard Smith Paul Wilkinson
CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead JAZZ Brian Morton
CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy MANDELA Tom Lodge
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE MEDICAL ETHICS
Robert Tavernor Tony Hope
CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko THE MIND Martin Davies
CONTEMPORARY ART Myth Robert Segal
Julian Stallabrass NATIONALISM Steven Grosby
THE CRUSADES PERCEPTION Richard Gregory
Christopher Tyerman PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
Derrida Simon Glendinning Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot
DESIGN John Heskett PHOTOGRAPHY
Dinosaurs David Norman Steve Edwards
DREAMING J. Allan Hobson THE RAJ Denis Judd
ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta THE RENAISSANCE
THE END OF THE WORLD Jerry Brotton
Bill McGuire RENAISSANCE ART
EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn Geraldine Johnson
THE FIRST WORLD WAR SARTRE Christina Howells
Michael Howard THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
FREE WILL Thomas Pink Helen Graham
FUNDAMENTALISM TRAGEDY Adrian Poole
Malise Ruthven THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Habermas Gordon Finlayson Martin Conway
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Robert McMahon
THE COLD WAR
A Very Short Introduction
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
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Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© Robert McMahon 2003
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Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published as a Very Short Introduction 2003
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Data available
ISBN 13:978–0– 19–280178–4
ISBN 10: 0–19–280178–3
57910864
Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall
Contents
Preface viii
List of illustrations x
List of maps xii
1
World War II and the destruction of the old order 1
2
The origins of the Cold War in Europe, 1945–50 16
3
Towards ‘Hot War’ in Asia, 1945–50 35
4
A global Cold War, 1950–8 56
5
From confrontation to detente, 1958–68 78
6
Cold wars at home 105
7
The rise and fall of superpower detente, 1968–79 122
8
The final phase, 1980–90 143
Further reading 169
Index 175
Preface to this edition
Writing a compact history of the conflict that dominated and largely
defined international affairs for nearly half a century has proven an
assignment at once challenging, exciting, and daunting. Detailed
monographs, many of them excellent and most considerably longer than
the present volume, exist for virtually every one of the major events,
crises, trends, and personalities discussed in this necessarily slim book.
Vigorous, oft-times vituperative scholarly debates, moreover, have raged
over almost every aspect of the Cold War’s history. Those debates have
been enlivened, and deepened, in recent years with the release of
previously secret documentary evidence from archives in the United
States, Russia, Eastern Europe, China, and elsewhere – and by the fresh
perspectives afforded by the passage of time. This book, consequently,
does not – nor could it – purport to be the last word on the Cold War or
to represent anything approaching a comprehensive history of that
complex, multi-faceted conflict.
Rather, in keeping with the general objectives of the Very Short
Introduction series, my goal has been to provide a broad, interpretive
overview, one accessible to students and general readers alike. This book
offers a general account of the Cold War, spanning the period from 1945
to the final denouement of the Soviet-American confrontation in 1990.
It elucidates key events, trends, and themes, drawing in so doing from
some of the most important recent scholarship on the Cold War. I have
sought, above all, to provide readers with an essential foundation for
understanding and assessing one of the seminal events in modern world
history.
Inevitably, I have had to make difficult choices in terms of what to cover,
and what to omit, about a conflict that spanned four and a half decades
and encompassed virtually the entire globe. Limitations of space
precluded treatment of some significant episodes and compelled the
most abbreviated possible treatment of others. I also decided to pay
short shrift to the military dimensions of the Cold War, partly because
other volumes in this series will be devoted to the Korean and the
Vietnam wars. What follows, then, is a ‘very short introduction’ to the
Cold War, as the title promises, written from an international
perspective and from a post-Cold War angle of vision. Key guiding
questions addressed by the narrative include: How, when, and why did
the Cold War begin?; Why did it last so long?; Why did it move from its
initial origins in postwar Europe to embrace almost the entire world?;
Why did it end so suddenly and unexpectedly?; And what impact did it
have?
I am grateful to Robert Zieger, Lawrence Freedman, and Melvyn Leffler,
each of whom read the manuscript and offered valuable suggestions for
its improvement. I also thank Rebecca O’Connor for encouragement,
advice, and support throughout, along with the entire Oxford University
Press editorial staff, who made working on this book a pleasure.