Why would one country impose economic sanctions against another in pursuit of foreign policy objectives? How effective is the use of economic weapons in attaining such objectives? To answer these questions, the author examines how and why the United States and its allies instituted economic sanctions against the People’s Republic of China in the 1950s, and how the embargo affected Chinese domestic policy and the Sino-Soviet alliance. The literature on sanctions has largely concluded that they tend to be ineffective in achieving foreign policy objectives. This study, based on recently declassified documents in the United States, Great Britain, China, and Russia, is unusual in that it looks at both sides of “the China embargo.” It concludes that economic sanctions provide, in certain circumstances, an attractive alternative to military intervention (especially in the nuclear age) or to doing nothing. The author argues that while the immediate effects may be meager or nil, the indirect and long-term effects may be considerable; in the case he reexamines, the disastrous Great Leap Forward and Anti-Rightist campaign were in part prompted by the sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies. Finally, though the embargo created difficulties within the Western alliance, Beijing was driven to press the USSR for much greater economic assistance than Moscow thought feasible, and the ensuing disagreements between them contributed to the collapse of the Sino-Soviet alliance. Going beyond the rational choice approach to international relations, the book reflects on the role of mutual perceptions and culturally bound notions in shaping international economic sanctions. In addition to contributing to a better understanding of the economic aspects of Cold War history, the book attempts to give more empirical substance to the developing concept of “economic diplomacy,” “economic statecraft,” or “economic warfare” and to relate it to the idea of conflict management. Part of the [Cold War International History Project Series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/108771-cold-war-international-history-project-series) from Woodrow Wilson Center Press

Based on extensive research in the Russian archives, this book examines the Soviet approach to the Vietnam conflict between the 1954 Geneva conference on Indochina and late 1963, when the overthrow of the South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem and the assassination of John F. Kennedy radically transformed the conflict. The author finds that the USSR attributed no geostrategic importance to Indochina and did not want the crisis there to disrupt détente. The Russians had high hopes that the Geneva accords would bring years of peace in the region. Gradually disillusioned, they tried to strengthen North Vietnam, but would not support unification of North and South. By the early 1960s, however, they felt obliged to counter the American embrace of an aggressively anti-Communist regime in South Vietnam and the hostility of its former ally, the People's Republic of China. Finally, Moscow decided to disengage from Vietnam, disappointed that its efforts to avert an international crisis there had failed. Part of the [Cold War International History Project Series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/108771-cold-war-international-history-project-series) from Woodrow Wilson Center Press

Based on new archival research in many countries, this volume broadens the context of the U.S. intervention in Vietnam. Its primary focus is on relations between China and Vietnam in the mid-twentieth century; but the book also deals with China's relations with Cambodia, U.S. dealings with both China and Vietnam, French attitudes toward Vietnam and China, and Soviet views of Vietnam and China. Contributors from seven countries range from senior scholars and officials with decades of experience to young academics just finishing their dissertations. The general impact of this work is to internationalize the history of the Vietnam War, going well beyond the long-standing focus on the role of the United States. Part of the [Cold War International History Project Series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/108771-cold-war-international-history-project-series) from Woodrow Wilson Center Press

Up to now the study of cold war history has been fully engaged in stressing the international character and broad themes of the story. This volume turns such diplomatic history upside down by studying how actions of international relations affected local popular life. Each chapter has its origins in a major international issue, and then unfolds the consequences of that issue for some region or city. Thus the starting points for the various contributions are great unifying questions regarding postwar occupation, militarization, industrialization, and decolonization. But the ending points are small and dispersed, such as movies in Japan, race relations in the American South, forests in East Germany, and industry in Novosibirsk. Collectively, these stories show how the cold war affected every facet of life—East and West, urban and rural, in developed and developing nations, in the superpowers and on the periphery of the international system. Part of the [Cold War International History Project Series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/108771-cold-war-international-history-project-series) from Woodrow Wilson Center Press

Why did the Soviet Union spark war in 1967 between Israel and the Arab states by falsely informing Syria and Egypt that Israel was massing troops on the Syrian border? Based on newly available archival sources, The Soviet Union and the June 1967 Six Day War answers this controversial question more fully than ever before. Directly opposing the thesis of the recently published Foxbats over Dimona by Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez, the contributors to this volume argue that Moscow had absolutely no intention of starting a war. The Soviet Union's reason for involvement in the region had more to do with enhancing its own status as a Cold War power than any desire for particular outcomes for Syria and Egypt. In addition to assessing Soviet involvement in the June 1967 Arab-Israeli Six Day War, this book covers the USSR's relations with Syria and Egypt, Soviet aims, U.S. and Israeli perceptions of Soviet involvement, Soviet intervention in the Egyptian-Israeli War of Attrition (1969-70), and the impact of the conflicts on Soviet-Jewish attitudes. This book as a whole demonstrates how the Soviet Union's actions gave little consideration to the long- or mid-term consequences of their policy, and how firing the first shot compelled them to react to events. Part of the [Cold War International History Project Series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/108771-cold-war-international-history-project-series) from Woodrow Wilson Center Press

Rebellious Satellite: Poland 1956 offers a social history of the mass movements that prompted political change and altered Polish-Soviet relations in 1956 but avoided a Soviet armed response. Pawel Machcewicz focuses on the people's expression of grievances, and even riots—as opposed to "top-level" activities such as internal Communist Party struggles. He carefully depicts the protests that took place in Poznań in June 1956 and across Poland the following October and November. The manuscript is based largely on new archival materials (mainly Party and security apparatus documents) that were originally prepared to provide detailed information to the Party leadership about what was happening on the ground. The book includes a selection of photographs from Poznań in June 1956 taken secretly by the police. Part of the [Cold War International History Project Series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/108771-cold-war-international-history-project-series) from Woodrow Wilson Center Press

Connecting Histories: Decolonization and the Cold War in Southeast Asia draws on newly available archival documentation from both Western and Asian countries to explore decolonization, the Cold War, and the establishment of a new international order in post-World War II Southeast Asia. Major historical forces intersected here—of power, politics, economics, and culture—on trajectories East to West, North to South, across the South itself, and along less defined tracks. Especially important, democratic-communist competitions sought the loyalties of Southeast Asian nationalists, even as some colonial powers sought to resume their prewar dominance. These intersections are the focus of the contributions to this book, which use new sources and approaches to examine some of the most important historical trajectories of the twentieth century in Burma, Vietnam, Malaysia, and a number of other countries. Part of the [Cold War International History Project Series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/108771-cold-war-international-history-project-series) from Woodrow Wilson Center Press

A Distant Front in the Cold War reveals West Africa as a significant site of Cold War conflict in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although the region avoided the extreme tensions of the standoff in Eastern Europe or in the Cuban missile crisis, it nevertheless offers a vivid example of political, economic, and propagandistic rivalry between the U.S. and the USSR. For Africa, this was a critical period characterized by decolonization and the formation of African countries' first foreign policies. The United States and the Soviet Union both hoped to win the sympathies of the newly established states, and Sergey Mazov's book is the first account of that competition, which the Soviet Union lost, largely through ignorance of the region. Mazov presents evidence from previously inaccessible or unknown documents in Russian and U.S. archives, as well as an international sampling of recent scholarly works. The rich historical account pays particular attention to the repercussions of Soviet West African experience on future Soviet foreign policy, especially in the Third World. Part of the [Cold War International History Project Series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/108771-cold-war-international-history-project-series) from Woodrow Wilson Center Press

Tema fra i più spinosi e discussi nella storia dell'Italia repubblicana, il rapporto tra il Pci e l'Unione Sovietica negli anni della guerra e del primo dopoguerra è affrontato qui a partire da un'ampia documentazione di parte sovietica: soprattutto dai resoconti degli incontri di Togliatti e degli altri dirigenti del Pci con l'ambasciatore sovietico, emerge un quadro stupefacente dell'allineamento del partito italiano agli obiettivi della politica estera sovietica. Gli autori mostrano come le scelte politiche del Pci - dalla svolta di Salerno alla questione di Trieste, alla "rivoluzione mancata", all'atteggiamento sul rimpatrio dalla Russia dei prigionieri, all'opposizione al Piano Marshall - fossero largamente determinate dalle esigenze della politica estera di Stalin. La "doppiezza" comunista non risiedeva tanto nella compresenza di un'anima legalitaria e di un'anima rivoluzionaria, quanto nella doppia identità di partito nazionale e frazione di un movimento comunista internazionale guidato dall'Unione Sovietica. Il libro, pubblicato nel 1997, viene ripresentato oggi in un'edizione notevolmente ampliata e arricchita dai risultati delle ricerche recenti e da nuovi documenti inediti.

Divided Together studies US and Soviet policy toward the United Nations during the first two decades of the Cold War. It sheds new light on a series of key episodes, beginning with the prehistory of the UN, an institution that aimed to keep the Cold War cold. Gaiduk employs previously secret Soviet files on UN policy, greatly expanding the evidentiary basis for studying the world organization. His analysis of Soviet and U.S. tactics and behavior, covering a series of international controversies over security and crisis resolution, reveals how the rivals tried to use the UN to gain leverage over each other during the institution's critical early years. Part of the [Cold War International History Project Series](https://www.goodreads.com/series/108771-cold-war-international-history-project-series) from Woodrow Wilson Center Press

For the Soviet bloc the struggle against foreign radio was a principal front in the Cold War. Poland's War on Radio Free Europe, 1950-1989, tells how Poland conducted this fight, a key part of the wider effort to control the flow of information and ideas. This is the first book in English to use the unique documents of Communist foreign intelligence operations so widely, and it also employes propaganda materials and personal interviews with RFE people and with party and security functionaries. The English translation reflects further discoveries of documentation since the original publication in Polish in 2007.

Beginning with Stalin's death in 1953 and ending with the dissolution of Soviet-U.S. antagonism in 1991, this book systematically explores the crucial turning points in the Cold War on all of its diverse fronts. The simplistic U.S. vs. Soviet analysis can obscure the fact that this war was fought by blocs of nations and in various regions around the world. Such a history lends itself to a collection of essays exploring the mutual interconnections of events in diverse regional Cold War theaters. "How do we understand the Cold War," writes the editor, Lorenz Lüthi, "if from one direction, we narrow the focus of inquiry from the superpower conflict to the level of regional struggles, and widen the focus from individual country case studies to the sub-systemic level of the Cold War?" The volume covers Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East in the crucial periods of the Cold War. Contributions are based on documents from China, India, the Arab Middle East, Serbia, the former Soviet Union, former East Germany, former Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and its contributors include many of the leading scholars in international Cold War history. Their work reveals the agency of smaller powers in the development and end of the Cold War, including Third World powers Egypt, Iraq, and Vietnam.

Trust, but Verify uses trust—with its emotional and predictive aspects—to explore international relations in the second half of the Cold War, beginning with the late 1960s. The détente of the 1970s led to the development of some limited trust between the Unisted States and the Soviet Union, which lessened international tensions and enabled advances in areas such as arms control. However, it also created uncertainty in other areas, especially on the part of smaller states that depended on their alliance leaders for protection. The contributors to this volume look at how the "emotional" side of the conflict affected the dynamics of various Cold War relations: between the superpowers, within the two ideological blocs, and inside individual countries on the margins of the East–West confrontation.

In the Cold War era, the confrontation between capitalism and communism played out not only in military, diplomatic, and political contexts, but also in the realm of culture―and perhaps nowhere more so than the cultural phenomenon of sports, where the symbolic capital of athletic endeavor held up a mirror to the global contest for the sympathies of citizens worldwide. The Whole World Was Watching examines Cold War rivalries through the lens of sporting activities and competitions across Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the U.S. The essays in this volume consider sport as a vital sphere for understanding the complex geopolitics and cultural politics of the time, not just in terms of commerce and celebrity, but also with respect to shifting notions of race, class, and gender. Including contributions from an international lineup of historians, this volume suggests that the analysis of sport provides a valuable lens for understanding both how individuals experienced the Cold War in their daily lives, and how sports culture in turn influenced politics and diplomatic relations.

In the aftermath of World War II, American diplomats and policymakers turned to the task of rebuilding Europe while keeping Communism at bay, and they confronted a divided Germany. While the United States' interest lay in stabilizing and forming an alliance with West Germany, what happened in the "other Germany" was also a matter of concern. Based on recently declassified documents from American, Russian, and German archives, this book tells the story of U.S. policy toward East Germany from 1945 to 1953. As the American approach shifted between the policy of "containment" and more active "rollback" of Communist power, the Truman and Eisenhower administrations worked to undermine Soviet-backed Communist rule without compromising economic and nation-building interests in West Germany. There was a darker side to American policy in East Germany: covert operations, propaganda, and psychological warfare. This international history draws on previously untapped German and Russian sources, tracking relations between East German and Soviet Communists and providing new perspectives on the role of U.S. foreign policy as Cold War tensions coalesced.

By the mid-1980s, public opinion in the USSR had begun to turn against Soviet involvement in Afghanistan: the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989) had become a long, painful, and unwinnable conflict, one that Mikhail Gorbachev referred to as a "bleeding wound" in a 1986 speech. The eventual decision to withdraw Soviet troops from Afghanistan created a devastating ripple effect within Soviet society that, this book argues, became a major factor in the collapse of the Soviet Union. In this comprehensive survey of the effects of the war on Soviet society and politics, Yaacov Ro'i analyzes the opinions of Soviet citizens on a host of issues connected with the war and documents the systemic change that would occur when Soviet leadership took public opinion into account. The war and the difficulties that the returning veterans faced undermined the self-esteem and prestige of the Soviet armed forces and provided ample ammunition for media correspondents who sought to challenge the norms of the Soviet system. Through extensive analysis of Soviet newspapers and interviews conducted with Soviet war veterans and regular citizens in the early 1990s, Ro'i argues that the effects of the war precipitated processes that would reveal the inbuilt limitations of the Soviet body politic and contribute to the dissolution of the USSR by 1991.