Description
Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1995. In the early 1970s, largely as a result of the debilitating struggle in Vietnam, the United States began to reassess and redefine its basic approach to East-West relations. At the same time, the Soviet Union was awakening to the liabilities that a continuing and unregulated state of hostility would impose on its own internal and external agenda. Keith Nelson details the circumstances and traces the steps that led to the first significant accommodation and easing of tension between the superpowers during the Cold War. In this important study, Keith Nelson explains the detente period in an imaginative, convincing, and impressively scholarly manner. Although there have been scores of books and memoirs on the subject, none have done the job quite like Nelson's. In particular, he has used post-glasnost Russian memoirs and monographsand, especially, his own interviews with such key players as Dobrynin and Arbatovto present one of the most intelligent Kremlinolog
Trade ReviewThe Johns Hopkins Press has published another thought-provoking and well-written book that encourages international relations specialists to rethink key assumptions about the cold war . . . The study invites both more reflection and research. It is likely to prove a seminal work to diplomatic historians and international relations specialists alike in the years ahead.
—Allan E. Goodman,
International History ReviewThere is much to like in this book. It is written in a lucid and engaging style. The organization is good, with smooth and effective transitions between the American and Soviet sides of the story. The book is especially strong on the evolution of thinking in the Kremlin; relying on a number of post-Cold War memoirs and monographs, as well as interviews with former Soviet officials, Nelson effectively portrays Moscow's motives and tactics in opting for detente.
—Fredrik Logevall,
Journal of American HistoryTable of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Developing Confrontation
Chapter 2. The Breakdown of Old Arrangements
Chapter 3. New Military Parity and the Decline of Bipolarity
Chapter 4. Seeking America's Escape from Vietnam
Chapter 5. Finding America's Way to Detente
Chapter 6. Brezhnev and Squaring the Circle
Epilogue: From Detente to the Gorbachev Revolution
Notes
Bibliography
Index
