America's Cold War
The Politics of Insecurity

The Cold War dominated world affairs during the half century following World War II. It ended in victory for the United States, yet it was a costly triumph, claiming trillions of dollars in defense spending and the lives of nearly 100,000 US soldiers. This title reexamines the successes and failures of America's Cold War.

Long after the USSR had been effectively contained, Washington continued to wage a virulent Cold War that entailed a massive arms buildup, wars in Korea and Vietnam, the support of repressive regimes and counterinsurgencies, and a pronounced militarization of American political culture. American foreign policy after 1945 was never simply a response to communist power or a crusade contrived solely by domestic interests. It was always an amalgamation of both. This provocative book lays bare the emergence of a political tradition in Washington that feeds on external dangers, real or imagined, a mindset that inflames U.S. foreign policy to this day.

* Introduction
* The Demise of Free Security * Confrontation * To the Ends of the Earth * Leaner and Meaner * The Nuclear Rubicon * Gulliver's Travails * Nixon's World * A New Cold War * Endgame
* Conclusion * Notes* * Acknowledgments * Index