Debating the Origins of the Cold War examines the coming of the Cold War through Americans' and Russians' contrasting perspectives and actions. In two engaging essays, the authors demonstrate that a huge gap existed between the democratic, capitalist, and global vision of the post-World War II peace that most Americans believed in and the dictatorial, xenophobic, and regional approach that characterized Soviet policies. The authors argue that repeated failures to find mutually acceptable solutions to concrete problems led to the rapid development of the Cold War, and they conclude that, given...

This analysis of the Kennedy administration's relationship with the press during the Laotian, Berlin, Cuban missile, and Vietnam crises of 1961-63 suggests that press coverage and Kennedy's influence on the press were far more varied than scholars have supposed. Focusing on press coverage of government officials, foreign leaders, domestic politicians, and interest groups, the study combines quantitative analysis with previously untapped sources in the Kennedy Library.

Originally published in 1984.

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In this analysis of the years of greatest American friendship with the Soviet Union, Levering comes to two conclusions. First, cosmopolitan, educated Americans of all classes were much more likely to change their negative attitudes of 1939 to positive ones by 1943 than were the provincial and poorly educated. Second, governmental leaders and the media, whether conservative or liberal, did not prepare the public for the probable realities of postwar international politics.

Originally published in 1976.

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