Description
Book SynopsisFollowing the Allied victory in World War II, the United States turned its efforts to preventing the spread of Communism beyond Eastern Europe. Gregory Mitrovich argues, however, that the policy of containment was only the first step in a clandestine campaign to destroy Soviet power.
Drawing on recently declassified U.S. documents, Mitrovich reveals a range of previously unknown covert actions launched during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. Through the aggressive use of psychological warfare, officials sought to provoke political crisis among key Soviet leaders, to incite nationalist tensions within the USSR, and to foment unrest across Eastern Europe. Mitrovich demonstrates that inspiration for these efforts did not originate within the intelligence community, but with individuals at the highest levels of policymaking in the U.S. government.
National security advisors, Mitrovich asserts, were adamant that the Soviet threat must be eliminated so the United Sta
Trade Review
Compelling and scrupulously researched.
* Newsweek *
Mitrovich challenges the interpretations of both more orthodox historians and the new left.... The book makes a valuable contribution to the emerging new history of the origins of the Cold War.
* International History Review *
Mitrovich has written a solid account of U.S. national security policy toward the Soviet Union during the Truman and Eisenhower eras.
* Choice *
Mitrovich makes a good case that aggressive covert attempts to weaken the Soviet system were a more significant and integrated part of high-level U.S. thinking than has generally been recognized. In the process he has produced a wealth of new research on key individuals, important policy debates, and incessant bureaucratic battles, which will be useful for anyone studying this critical period of the Cold War.
* Journal of Cold War Studies *
Mitrovich's perspective is refreshing and clear.
* Orbis *
Readers interested in the strategic implications of nuclear weapons during the early Cold War will find Undermining the Kremlin instructive.
* Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists *
