Overview

Cold War Statesmen Confront the Bomb: Nuclear Diplomacy Since 1945 is a path-breaking work that uses biographical techniques to test one of the most important and widely debated questions in international politics: Did the advent of the nuclear bomb prevent the Third World War? Many scholars and much conventional wisdom assumes that nuclear deterrence has prevented major power war since the end of the Second World War; this remains a principal tenet of US strategic policy today. Others challenge this assumption, and argue that major war would have been `obsolete' even without the bomb. This book tests these propositions by examining the careers of ten leading Cold War statesmen--Harry S Truman; John Foster Dulles; Dwight D. Eisenhower; John F. Kennedy; Josef Stalin; Nikita Krushchev; Mao Zedong; Winston Churchill; Charles De Gaulle; and Konrad Adenauer--and asking whether they viewed war, and its acceptability, differently after the advent of the bomb. The book's authors argue almost unanimously that nuclear weapons did have a significant effect on the thinking of these leading statesmen of the nuclear age, but a dissenting epilogue from John Mueller challenges this thesis.

Full Product Details

Author:   John Gaddis (Robert Lovett Professor of History, Robert Lovett Professor of History, Yale University) ,  Philip Gordon (Director for European Affairs, Director for European Affairs, National Security Council, Washington) ,  Ernest May (Professor of History, Professor of History, Harvard University) ,  Jonathan Rosenberg (Assistant Professor of History, Assistant Professor of History, Florida Atlantic University)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.20cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 24.20cm
Weight:   0.729kg
ISBN:  

9780198294689

ISBN 10:   0198294689
Pages:   408
Publication Date:   01 April 1999
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Introduction by Ernest May 1: Andrew P. N. Erdman: `War No Longer Has Any Logic Whatever': Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Thermonuclear Revolution 2: S. David Broscious: Longing for International Control, Banking on American Superiority: Harry S Truman's Approach to Nuclear Energy 3: Vladislav M. Zubok: Stalin and the Nuclear Age 4: Neil Rosendorf: John Foster Dulles' Nuclear Schizophrenia 5: Philip Nash: Bear Any Burden?: John F. Kennedy and Nuclear Weapon 6: Vladislav M. Zubok and Hope M. Harrison: The Nuclear Education of Nikita Khrushchev 7: Jonathan Rosenberg: Before the Bomb and After: Winston Churchill and the Use of Force 8: Shu Guang Zhang: Between `Paper' and `Real' Tigers: Mao's View of Nuclear Weapons 9: Philip H. Gordon: Charles De Gaulle and the Nuclear Revolution 10: Annette Messemer: Konrad Adenauer: Defence Diplomat on the Backstage John Lewis Gaddis: Conclusion. Nuclear Statesmen John Mueller: Epilogue

Reviews

excellent and scholarly collection Lawrence Freedman, TLS

excellent and scholarly collection * Lawrence Freedman, TLS *

Author Information

PROFESSOR JOHN GADDIS is Professor of History at Yale DR PHILIP GORDON is Director for European Affairs, National Security Council, Washington PROFESSOR ERNEST MAY is Professor of History at Harvard PROFESSOR JONATHAN ROSENBERG is Assistant Professor of History at Florida Atlantic University

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