The Cold War through Documents: A Global History

This text is a comprehensive collection of more than 100 carefully edited documents (speeches, treaties, statements, and articles), making the great events of the era come alive through the words and phrases of those who were actively involved. Coverage traces the Cold War from its roots in East-West tensions before and during World War II through its origins in the immediate postwar era, up to and including the collapse of the Soviet Union during 1989-1991.

Table of Contents:
Contents Part I: The Origins of the Cold War, 1945-1950 1 The Yalta Conference, February 1945 2 The Potsdam Conference, July–August 1945 3 The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, August 1945 4 Ho Chi Minh’s Declaration of Independence for Vietnam, 2 September 1945 5 Stalin’s Election Speech, February 1946 6 Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech, March 1946 7 The Baruch and Gromyko Plans for Control of Atomic Weapons, 1946 8 The Truman Doctrine, 1947 9 The Marshall Plan, 1947 10 George F. Kennan, “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” 1947 11 The Rio Treaty, 1947 12 Zhdanov and the Cominform on the Imperialist and Anti-Imperialist Camps, 1947 13 The Communist Coup in Czechoslovakia, February 1948 14 The Treaty of Brussels, 1948 15 The Expulsion of Tito from the Communist Bloc, 1948 16 The Berlin Blockade, 1948–1949 17 The NATO Alliance, 1949 18 Acheson on the Communist Triumph in China, 1949 19 Mao Proclaims the People’s Republic of China, 1 October 1949 20 The Soviet–Chinese Friendship Treaty, February 1950 Part II: The Global Confrontation, 1950-1960 21 McCarthy on “Communists” in the US Government, 1950 22 Acheson on the American Defense Perimeter in Asia, 1950 23 NSC–68: American Cold War Strategy, 1950 24 Surviving an Atomic Attack, 1950-1951 25 The Korean War, 1950–1953 26 Dulles on “Massive Retaliation,” 1954 27 The Geneva Accords Regarding Indochina, 1954 28 The SEATO Alliance, 1954 29 The Bandung Asian-African Conference, 1955 30 The Warsaw Pact, 1955 31 Appeals for World Peace, 1955-1963 32 Khrushchev’s Secret Speech on Stalin and His Crimes, 1956 33 The Hungarian Rebellion, 1956 34 The Suez Crisis, 1956 35 The Eisenhower Doctrine, 1957 36 Europe’s Common Market: The Treaty of Rome, 1957 37 Sputnik and the Space Race, 1957-1969 38 China’s “Great Leap Forward,” 1958-1960 39 Apartheid, South Africa, and the Cold War, 1960-1964 40 The U–2 Affair and Collapse of the Paris Summit, May 1960 41 The Congo Crisis, 1960 42 Castro on the Cuban Revolution, 1960 Part III: Crisis and Conflict, 1961-1969 43 Khrushchev on “Wars of National Liberation,” January, 1961 44 Kwame Nkrumah on the Need for African Unity, 1961 45 Eisenhower’s Farewell Address on the Military-Industrial Complex, 17 January 1961 46 Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, 1961 47 Kennedy’s Civil Defense Initiatives, 1961 48 The Berlin Crisis, 1961 49 The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962 50 Kennedy’s Berlin Speech, June 1963: “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” 51 The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, August 1963 52 The Sino-Soviet Split, 1960–1964 53 The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964 54 Lin Biao, “Long Live the Victory of People’s War,” 1965 55 Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War, 1965–1968 56 China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969 57 Soviet Dissidents and the Cold War, 1966-1978 58 The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, July 1968 59 The Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia, August 1968 60 The Brezhnev Doctrine, 1968 61 The Soviet-Chinese Border Conflict, 1969 62 The Nixon Doctrine, 1969 Part IV. The Era of Détente, 1969-1979 63 Salvador Allende’s Freely Elected Marxist Government in Chile, 1970-1973 64 The Berlin Accords, September 1971 65 Nixon’s China Visit: The Shanghai Communiqué, February 1972 66 The ABM Treaty and SALT I, 1972 67 The US Withdrawal from Vietnam, January 1973 68 The October War in the Middle East, 1973 69 Deng Xiaoping’s “Three Worlds” Speech, April 1974 70 The Vladivostok Summit, 1974 71 The Helsinki Final Act, 1975 72 The Cambodian Genocide, 1975-1979 73 Carter on Human Rights, 1977 74 Peace between Egypt and Israel, 1977–1979 75 The Normalization of US-Chinese Relations, 1978–1979 76 The SALT II Agreement, 1979 Part V: The Renewal of the Cold War, 1979-1985 77 The Creation of an Islamic Republic in Iran, 1979 78 The Euromissile Controversy, 1979 79 The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, December 1979 80 The Carter Doctrine, January 1980 81 Reagan’s Anti-Soviet Rhetoric, 1981–1983 82 Reagan’s Arms Control Proposals, November 1981 83 The Polish Imposition of Martial Law, December 1981 84 Andropov’s Peace Offensive, 1982 85 Reagan’s “Star Wars” Speech, 1983 86 Calls to Halt the Nuclear Arms Race, 1983 87 The KAL 007 Incident, 1983 Part VI: The End of the Cold War, 1985-1991 88 The Geneva Summit, 1985 89 The Reykjavik Summit, 1986 90 Reagan’s 1987 Berlin Speech: “Tear Down This Wall” 91 The INF Treaty, December 1987 92 The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan, 1988–1989 93 Gorbachev’s UN Address, December 1988 94 The Tienanmen Square Massacre, June 1989 95 The Opening of the Berlin Wall, November 1989 96 NATO Non-Enlargement Assurances, February-May 1990 97 NATO’s London Declaration on the End of the Cold War, July 1990 98 The Unification of Germany, July-October 1990 99 The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), July 1991 100 The Attempted Coup in the USSR, August 1991 101 Gorbachev’s Resignation Speech, December 1991

About the Author :
Edward H. Judge is professor of history and John W. Langdon is professor emeritus of history at Le Moyne College. Their books include Connections: A World History and A Hard and Bitter Peace: A Global History of the Cold War.

Review :
This volume offers well-chosen primary sources from a wide range of Cold War arenas. The documents are compact, balanced, and ideal for stimulating student discussion in college-level courses. The new fourth edition expands the thematic range to include home fronts, the space race, the peace movement, South African apartheid, Soviet dissidents, and the post-Cold-War expansion of NATO. Simply the most comprehensive one-volume collection of Cold War primary sources available. I have assigned The Cold War Through Documents through each successive edition for its excellent concentration on political dimensions of the Cold War through treaty texts, governmental or party declarations, newspaper and journal articles, and addresses delivered by key political figures. When paired with a text that provides essential narratives and supplemented by cultural historical readings, this collection is an essential tool for introducing the subject with sufficient depth and appropriately global focus. The editors have chosen all the documents with great care: there is no superfluous material in this book. For instructors and students alike, the discussion questions are not only insightful for use in the class, but they also highlight the most important issues in each document. It would also make a wonderful text for courses on Modern European or Global History, political science, as well as military history. The fourth edition greatly improves an already outstanding book with a wealth of new materials that include documents relating to the beginning of the nuclear age, sputnik and the space race, apartheid in South Africa, President Kennedy’s civil defense initiatives, Soviet dissidents, controversies involving NATO’s expansion at the end of the Cold War, and the reunification of Germany The greatest strength of this text is the wide range of sources it draws on, not just from the US, USSR, or even China, but also through Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe. This approach allows students to see, analyze, and understand the ways the Cold War was less a “chessboard” between the US and USSR in the ways all too many textbooks portray it, and instead a very complicated web of national, regional, and global struggles between countries with differing visions of development, modernity, and society.