Almost three years ago I decided to transform my many years of teaching and writing on the Cold War into an accessible book for twenty-first-century readers. It has been a fascinating task to revisit the rivalry between the world’s first communist state and the Western powers, one that consumed a major portion of the twentieth century and altered its politics and economy along with its physical, social, and cultural environment.
Although the Cold War’s unexpected end led to an unprecedented opening of archival sources and the publication of numerous memoirs and books, there have been few efforts up to now to view this conflict in a broad international perspective. Based on new evidence along with the observations and analyses of contemporaries and two generations of scholarship, this book is an attempt to comprehend the Cold War as a dynamic rivalry, one in which large and small powers and diverse groups of people maneuvered in a militarized and divided world.
I thank my original editor, Priscilla McGeehon, and her successor, Ada Fung, and their able assistant, Stephen Pinto, for their generous support, and Annie Lenth, Carolyn Sobczak, and Beth Wright for bringing this book to completion. I thank David Lincove, History, Political Science, and Philosophy Librarian at The Ohio State University, and Sue Ann Cody, Associate University Librarian for Public Services Emerita, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, for helping me obtain research materials. The late Terry Benjey, a devoted friend and computer mentor, provided superb technical assistance. I thank family and friends who have given unstinting support to this project: Renate Bridenthal, Nan Cameron, Sandi Cooper, Emily Davidson, Muriel Dimen, Hilda Godwin, John Haley, Dorothy Kahn, Joyce Kuhn, Marjorie Madigan, Richard Nochimson, Peter Schuck, Ben Steelman, and Juanita Winner. My son, Stefan Harold Fink, has made my move to Wilmington, North Carolina, a joy.
Thanks also to the reviewers who provided such thoughtful feedback on this project: John Chambers (Rutgers University), David Messenger (University of Wyoming), Thomas Maulucci (American International College), Cristofer Scarboro (King’s College), and Michael Slattery (Campbell University).
I am grateful to all my students (including the recent Cold War class in OLLI, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington) for their inspiration and especially to Stuart J. Hilwig (1968–2012), who will long be remembered as a wise, witty, and extraordinarily dedicated scholar and teacher.
Wilmington, North Carolina
March 2013