A good introduction to a period that felt permanent at the time, but feels insubstantial and remote now. I had hoped this would be much more substantial than the Very Short Introduction, also read recently. But it was still pretty basic.
Now, to find something more substantial, but still analytical, not a chronological doorstopper.
pickFinished this audiobook last night. I think it probably worked better as an audiobook, too. Gaddis does a nice job offering a look at how intelligence released in the years after the end of the Cold War offers new insight into what was really going on behind the scenes for world leaders. It really makes you wonder how the world survived the war. #ColdWar
“But what if a president should lie and do so repeatedly in an unpopular cause?” I‘m halfway through this audiobook, and this section is dealing with the shadier actions of the United States during the Cold War. Watergate really was just the tip of the iceberg with Nixon. What an indefensible mess! Certainly, he wasn‘t the only president guilty of lying to the American people, but he took it to new lows. Yikes! #ColdWar
I was born in 1973, in the latter half of the Cold War, but despite reaching adulthood in a world just after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union, I‘m realizing how little I understand the conflict itself. I‘m also disturbed by how much more Trump resembles Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev than any of our Cold War presidents. Started reading this for research on a future writing project, but it‘s proving a fascinating read. #TheColdWar
The Cold War: A New History | 
