A constructed peace : the making of the European settlement, 1945-1963 / Marc Trachtenberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Trachtenberg, Marc, 1946-

Series:

Princeton studies in international history and politics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Peace.

Nuclear weapons--International cooperation.

Nuclear weapons.

Europe--Politics and government--1945-.

Europe.

Politics and government.

Europe--Foreign relations--United States.

International relations.

United States.

United States--Foreign relations--Europe.

Physical Description:

xv, 424 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [1999]

Summary:

People still think of the Cold War as a simple two-sided conflict, kind of as a gigantic arm wrestle on a global scale, " writes Marc Trachtenberg, "but this view fails to grasp the essence of what was really going on." America and Russia were both willing to live with the status quo in Europe. What then could have generated the kind of conflict that might have led to a nuclear holocaust? This is the great puzzle of the Cold War, and in this book the product of nearly twenty years of work, Trachtenberg tries to solve it.

The answer, he says, has to do with the German question, especially with the German nuclear question. These issues lay at the heart of the Cold War, and a relatively stable peace took shape only when they were resolved. The book develops this argument by telling a story -- a complex story involving many issues of detail, but focusing always on the central question of how a stable international system came into being during the Cold War period. A Constructed Peace will be of interest not just students of the Cold War, but to people concerned with the problem of war and peace, and in particular with the question of how a stable international order can be constructed, even in our own day.

Contents:

Part I The Division of Europe

Chapter 1 A Spheres of Influence Peace? 3

Chapter 2 Toward the Rubicon 34

Chapter 3 The Test of Strength 66

Part II The Nato System

Chapter 4 The Making of the NATO System 95

Chapter 5 Eisenhower and Nuclear Sharing 146

Chapter 6 An Alliance in Disarray 201

Part III The Cold War Peace

Chapter 7 The Politics of the Berlin Crisis, 1958-1960 251

Chapter 8 Kennedy, NATO, and Berlin 283

Chapter 9 A Settlement Takes Shape 352.

Notes:

"Some of the unpublished documents cited here ... are included in an Internet Supplement (IS), which I intend to maintain for at least ten years follwing the publication of this book. [The IS] can be found at the following location: http://www.history.upenn.edu/trachtenberg"-- p. [403].

Includes bibliographical references (pages [403]-418) and index.

ISBN:

0691001839

0691002738

OCLC:

39455994

Online:

Internet Supplement.