Summary of John Lewis Gaddis's The Cold War

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 The war was won by a coalition of countries that were already at war with one another ideologically and geopolitically. The victors would have to cease being who they were or give up much of what they had hoped to attain by fighting the war.

#2 The American and Russian armies, which met in 1945 on the banks of the Elbe River, had similarities in their birth in revolution and their global ideologies, but they differed in their distrust of concentrated authority.

#3 The American and British governments were able to choose where, when, and in what circumstances they would fight, which greatly minimized the costs and risks of fighting. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, had no such advantages. It had only one war, and it was the most terrible one in all of history.

#4 The Soviet Union had one other advantage as well, which was that it alone among the victors emerged from the war with tested leadership.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669373049

IRB Media

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Insights on John Lewis Gaddis's The Cold War

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The war was won by a coalition of countries that were already at war with one another ideologically and geopolitically. The victors would have to cease being who they were or give up much of what they had hoped to attain by fighting the war.

#2

The American and Russian armies, which met in 1945 on the banks of the Elbe River, had similarities in their birth in revolution and their global ideologies, but they differed in their distrust of concentrated authority.

#3

The American and British governments were able to choose where, when, and in what circumstances they would fight, which greatly minimized the costs and risks of fighting. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, had no such advantages. It had only one war, and it was the most terrible one in all of history.

#4

The Soviet Union had one other advantage as well, which was that it alone among the victors emerged from the war with tested leadership.

#5

Stalin’s goals were security for himself, his regime, and his country. He wanted to make sure that no internal challenges could ever again endanger his personal rule, and that no external threats would ever again place his country at risk.

#6

Stalin’s understanding of his wartime allies and their postwar objectives was based more on wishful thinking than on an accurate assessment of priorities. He believed that capitalists would never be able to cooperate with one another for very long, and that communists would need to wait until the economic crisis returned before taking power.

#7

Stalin’s goal was not to restore a balance of power in Europe, but to dominate it completely. He believed that the long-term forces of history would compensate for the catastrophe World War II had inflicted upon the Soviet Union.

#8

After World War II, the Americans wanted security, but they were less certain of what they would have to do to obtain it. The reason was because they had not yet concluded that their security required transplanting their principles abroad.

#9

After World War II, the United States committed itself to