The Cold War - Book Review
A New History
By John Lewis Gaddis
Penguin Books
This book was chosen for our History book club's April reading. Most of my review includes my take and a few points discussed in our book club.A context added by one of the book club members was this is a distilled version of a much more elaborate and earlier work of the author - We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History. As I have finished the former, I'm very much tempted to give the latter a try.
The book neatly covers the Cold War geo-political landscapes predominantly from a USA-centric view and sometimes from a USSR perspective. Given the large scope of this book elaborating on the NATO and WARSAW measures that happened during the Cold War, given the changing political climate in the USA and USSR at those times, it makes sense why other large players like the UK, France, and China got a little screen time. The Non-Aligned Movement folks do get guest appearances as well.
There are several aspects that the book introduced me to: (1) How clueless were most of the leaders at the time (USA, France, China) about what students were capable of - Something that might have happened when the global phenomena of baby boomers got more accessibility to higher education after the World War 2, resources to disseminate their ideas in University Campuses and to unite for common causes they believe that's worth fighting for rather than being pawns of someone else's plans. The reaction to this new threat by different leaders is different - some fled, some suppressed it by all means, and some had to change their policy accordingly. Interestingly, all these reactions might have been motivated by the government architecture in these countries and the freedom and flexibility the corresponding leaders enjoyed at the top. Along similar lines, one notable area this book has attempted to cover is the psychology of the leaders and how it might have played out for them.
(2) The reactions of nations other than the US and USSR - While the world was in a tug of war politically and tension remained tight, the rest of the countries also had to react to this, either by choosing sides or not. It is remarkable how different nations worked this out, who wanted to preserve their identity. For example, the actions of the UK and France, weakening colonial powerhouses, during the Suez Canal Crisis, the closest NATO come to falling apart. On the other hand, how this played out for new political dynamics in the Middle East. Interestingly, this was also a reminder for the rest of the world, how one can benefit without joining sides by Nasser, as a strong proponent of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Some NAM leaders, like Titto, showed how they can set aside their personal beliefs and stand out for their nation's good. At the end of the day, even nations under the banner of NATO and WARSAW wanted to be dependent ally rather than an obedient one.
(3) The rise of proxy wars, where 2 parties get into an armed conflict, quickly backed up by bigger players to supply resources that the original parties could not even fathom. Again, this conflict now starts to take more time, money, and losses as the bigger players treat it as a showdown of their might. As the original parties often take the hit or a power vacuum that usually gets filled by something worse, or becomes severely in debt, the bigger players still have a home they can go back to and tell the tale. It was interesting to read this book and get a notification of Johnny Harris's new YouTube upload about the same topic.
(4) The shifting dynamics of nuclear weapons as a weapon and a deterrent - The book briefly talks about the view the leaders of the rest of the nations had about nuclear arms- Was the arms race necessary when everyone was fully aware of the aftermath if used in a war? However, the book covered in detail how this viewpoint evolved in the USA as a function of leaders in Whitehouse. To be honest, this felt like a good overview of other Cold War political events that shaped the current USA, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, Space Wars, Intelligence and counterintelligence efforts, and other internal events. How two major powerhouses boasted about their capabilities, though the book clearly points out how poor the intelligence they possessed about each other was at the time. This led us to a fun discussion about the International Spy Museum (Now on my bucket list to visit).
One book club member had an excellent remark about the old joke about the USSR which is eerily becoming true these days in different contexts: How it is easier to predict the future than the past.