From the Cold War to a New Era: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1983-1991

by Don Oberdorfer

An updated edition of Don Oberdorfer's acclaimed book, The Turn First published in 1991 as The Turn , this is the gripping narrative history of the most important international development of our time―the passage of the United States and the Soviet Union from the Cold War to a new era. Don Oberdorfer makes the reader a privileged behind-the-scenes spectator as U.S. and Soviet leaders take each other's measure and slowly set about their historic task. Oberdorfer writes diplomatic history with a vital extraordinary intimacy made possible by comprehensive interviews with major figures on both sides and exclusive material from a host of other sources. Now this widely praised book is available in a new, updated paperback edition that continues the narrative up to the dramatic collapse of the Soviet Union. Replete with revealing portraits of historical personalities, as riveting as a spy thriller, this is an enthralling record of history in the making.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction

568 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[RYD · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good, if somewhat depressing, reminder of the hope that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. I learned a lot about the diplomacy of Presidents Reagan and Bush, and it gave me a much greater appreciation of Gorbachev, who is usually seen as sort of a hapless reformer.

One paragraph I underscored, which I think does a good job of showing the optimism of the times:

"When 1989 began, Europe was divided from East to West along the lines that had been established in the aftermath of World War II and with few exceptions frozen ever since. On the eastern side of what Winston Churchill in 1946 had named the Iron Curtain, the nations of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania were dominated by communist parties beholden to Moscow and kept in power by the threat of Soviet military intervention, as they had been for four decades. Behind fortified barriers and watch towers snaking across the countryside and an ugly concrete and steel wall through the heart of Berlin, East Germany was a powerful half a nation, ruled by orthodox communists who had contempt for Gorbachev's reforms.

"By the end of the year, the leaders of all those nations would either change their political orientation or be ousted by popular uprisings. In every case except for Romania, hardly a drop of blood would be spilled. The armored and reinforced borders between East and West Germany would be opened to the joy of Germans on both sides dancing triumphantly on the Berlin Wall. With dizzying suddenness, the Soviet Union's European empire, its buffer zone between Soviet territory and the West, would collapse. Rarely in history has such a sweeping reorientation of political, economic and military power taken place so swiftly without military conquest of bloody revolution."

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the best books on U.S.-Soviet relations that I have read, and I've examined quite a number of them since that is one of my favorite areas of history to study. The final chapter on the actual end of the Soviet Union is not as good as the rest of the book, but overall this book is incredibly compelling. It provides good background on the Reagan administration coming into office feeling as if the Soviet Union was overtaking the U.S. and trying to push back. George Schultz's role is (I think) correctly highlighted as U.S. diplomacy moves onto a more cautiously friendly track that eventually pays dividends, particularly when Gorbachev comes to power.