The Witness History: The Cold War (Witness History)

A major historical topic is discussed in each book in this series which is designed to encourage readers in the handling and assessment of original historical material. This book looks at the changing temperature in East-West relations from the end of World War II to the present day. "The Cold War" starts with the growth of suspicion after the communist revolution in 1917 and looks at divided Europe at the end of the Second World War and the new "Iron Curtain countries". It traces the subsequent freeze in relations between the USSR and the West which resulted in the Truman Doctrine, the Berlin Wall and the Nato/Warsaw Pact. The book considers the events in Korea, Vietnam and the Suez as the political conflict erupted around the world, and the struggles behind the Iron Curtain amongst the satellite states - Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland - particularly over human rights. Nuclear weapons, the fluctuating temperature of the Super Powers' relations over the years, with the theory and practice of detente, Geneva Conventions, Star Wars, "glasnost" and "perestroika" are issues examined. Derek Heater has also written "Case Studies in Twentieth Century History" and "Britain and the Outside World".