Description
Book SynopsisIn the late 1950s, Washington was driven by its fear of communist subversion: it saw the hand of Kremlin behind developments at home and across the globe. The FBI was obsessed with the threat posed by American communist party--yet party membership had sunk so low, writes H.W. Brands, that it could have fit inside a high-school gymnasium, and it was so heavily infiltrated that J. Edgar Hoover actually contemplated using his informers as a voting bloc to take over the party. Abroad, the preoccupation with communism drove the White House to help overthrow democratically elected governments in Guatemala and Iran, and replace them with dictatorships. But by then the Cold War had long since blinded Americans to the ironies of their battle against communism. In The Devil We Knew, Brands provides a witty, perceptive history of the American experience of the Cold War, from Truman''s creation of the CIA to Ronald Reagan''s creation of SDI. Brands has written a number of highly regarded works on
Trade Reviewa sophisticated interpretation of America's involvement in the Cold War * Kirkus Reviews *
thought-provoking, controversial study * Publishers Weekly *
Brands writes with consummate wit and good humor * Washington Post *
