This book tends to focus on the doings of a relatively small number of people out of the total array of officials importantly involved in these events. We single out a relatively small number, partly because some were especially influential, but also so that it would be easier for a reader to keep track of the people we mention. So, our first acknowledgment is to our former colleagues in the United States and other governments, diplomats or generals or intelligence officials, whom we do not mention in describing episodes in which they too played their part. In one episode or another they were our teammates, and this book is partly about what teamwork can do.
In preparing this book we are grateful for the support of our home institutions, the University of Virginia and Stanford University. We received valuable research assistance from Iris Malone, Nicholas Mortensen, Matthew Frakes, Grace Anderson, Daniel Begovich, Emma Frerichs, and J. Bradford Morith. We received wise comments and research tips from Daniel Collings, Liviu Horowitz, Mark Kramer, Melvyn Leffler, Dennis Ross, Kristina Spohr, John Taylor, James Graham Wilson, and Robert Zoellick. Kirill Kalinin gave us some translation assistance.
The archivists we worked with at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library, such as Zachary Roberts and Mary Finch, exhibit a sense of duty and public-spiritedness that would make George H. W. Bush proud of the caretakers of his records. We are also especially grateful to the staffs of the other archival facilities and documentary project leaders whose efforts we acknowledge in our notes. At the National Security Archive, Svetlana Savranskaya deserves special notice for her dedicated work over the years as scholar, editor, and translator.
At Twelve and its parent company, the Hachette Book Group, we are grateful for the editorial work of Sean Desmond and Roland Ottewell, organized by Carolyn Kurek and assisted by Rachel Kambury. We are also grateful for the advice and help we have received from our literary agents, Andrew Wylie and Wayne Kabak.