The Cold War in Germany: Overview, Origins, and Intelligence Wars

The coverage of The Cold War in Germany: Overview, Origins, and Intelligence Wars is indicated in the subtitle. The "overview," like the "origins," concentrates primarily on the historical development of the Cold War. But the "overview" concentrates more heavily on World War II in terms of background while the "origins" goes back in time to the beginning of the modern era in Western Society. The book also deals with the various "wildcards" of the postwar era including Eurocommunism and the developments of terrorist activity in the 1970s. Author Otis C. Mitchell, who served as an Army intelligence operative in North Germany, interweaves his counterintelligence experiences with newly declassified documentary evidence (particularly those of the C.I.A. operation in "battleground" Berlin called Base of Operations Berlin, or BOB). Combining these two sources, Mitchell paints a broad picture of the West and East German intelligence and counterintelligence services. He shows that the Cold War had, by the time of the building of the infamous Berlin Wall, already established basic patterns that lasted until its end and beyond. This system became anachronistic after the end of that long struggle, and was not adequate to face the challenge of Islamic fundamentalism as it developed in the 1990s and the early twenty first century.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Historical Patterns Underlying the Cold War Chapter 3 Shaping of the Cold War in E Chapter 4 Wartime Cooperation to Peacetime Antagonism Chapter 5 The 1950s: Reconstruction and International Block Building Chapter 6 The Cold War as Customary Stimulus and Response Chapter 7 The Brezhnev Era and Disillusionment Chapter 8 Détente and After: Into the 1980s Chapter 9 The End of the Cold War Chapter 10 The Historical Shaping of the Cold War in Germany Chapter 11 The Role of Postwar Vacuums (1945 and After) Chapter 12 Finding an American Policy: Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan and NATO Chapter 13 The Far East Yugoslavia, and a Cold War Deadlock Chapter 14 The Extension and Containment to Asia-Indochina Chapter 15 Stalin's Death and Afterward Chapter 16 The Cuban Missile Crisis and the End of a Historical Era Chapter 17 Berlin and Germany: Intelligence Battleground After 1945 Chapter 18 The Korean War's Impact on German Intelligence Chapter 19 Post-Blockade Intelligence Operations in Germany Chapter 20 The East German State Security and Intelligence Establishment Chapter 21 1950s Intelligence: The Development of Opposing Chapter 22 End Game: Threats and Counterpressures Until Fall of 1963 Chapter 23 Epilogue Chapter 24 Bibliography Chapter 25 Index

About the Author :
Otis C. Mitchellis Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Cincinnati. Professor Mitchell (Ph.D., History) has authored or co-authored some sixteen works, among them Germany's Iron Chancellor: Otto von Bismarck in His Era and Crisis in Europe: Thirty Years' War (1618-1648).

Review :
This is a broad overview by a prolific, quite distinguished veteran historian who draws on his personal experience as a US military intelligence officer in Germany (1957-59)...Mitchell is a seasoned observer and shares a number of incisive insights, especially about the reciprocal effects of policies in Asia and Europe.