Review: United States: The Fifty-Year Wound
| Date | 01 September 2002 |
| Author | Toby Zanin |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200205700311 |
| Published date | 01 September 2002 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS
UNITED
STATES
THE
FIFTY-YEAR
WOUND
The
true
price
of
America's
cold
war
victory
Derek
Leebaert
Boston:
Little,
Brown,
xviii,
750
pages,
$42.95,
ISBN
0-3165-1847-6
A
riddle
wrapped
in
a
mystery
inside
an
enigma.'
Churchill's sum-
mary
of
the
state
of
Stalinist
Russia
may
ironically
be
a
fitting
epitaph
for
our
own
murky
understanding
of
the
largely
unexpected
ideological
contest
that
arose
out of
the
ashes
of
the
Second
World
War
between
erstwhile
allies,
the United
States
and
the
Soviet
Union.
Among
its
other
legacies,
it
produced
thousands
of
casualties
on
both
sides,
a
con-
sequence
of
extended
proxy
conflicts
between
the
combatant
parties;
it
drained
untold
wealth
from
the
respective
treasuries
around
the
globe
(including
an
estimated
10
trillion
American dollars
on
defence
pur-
chases
alone
during
the
long
twilight
of
the cold
war struggle);
and
more
generally it disfigured
the
conduct
of
international
relations
for
the
better
part
of
a
half
century.
As
unexpectedly
as
it
had
begun, the
cold
war
ended;
the drama
that
defined
an
era
came
to
a
close
not
with
a
feared
nuclear
bang
but with
a
melancholy,
exhausted
whimper.
Apologists for
the
emerging
world
order
were
quick
to
proclaim
the
virtues
of
a
brave
new
world
predicat-
ed
on
globalized
laissez-faire
market
values.
How
we
got
from
there
to
here
is
the
theme
of
Derek
Leebaert's
admirable
but
ultimately frustrating study
of
the
half
century
of
cold
war
and
its
immediate
aftermath.
Leebaert
presents
an uneasy
mix
of
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
SUMMER
2002
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