Synopses & Reviews
Collins traces Communist strategy in the so-called Cold War from its ideological roots, through its successes, to the systeM&Apos;s collapse. He demonstrates that Communist ideology made the Cold War inevitable, shaped Communist strategy and the resultant structure and purpose of Communist states, and assured that Soviet and other Communist states and party strategies would be subsets of a larger Communist world strategy. Collins challenges American perception and conduct of the Cold War as essentially a conflict between Great Powers in a bipolar world, demonstrating that it was in fact a real war, with its objective to create a Communist world.
He illuminates the central role of internal strategy conflicts in fractionating the Communist world, and the direct linkage between the failure of Communist world strategy and the systeM&Apos;s collapse. This is a major synthesis that will be of interest to scholars and researchers of international Communism and security issues as well as lay readers.
Synopsis
Collins traces Communist strategy in the so-called Cold War from its ideological roots, through its successes, to the system's collapse. He demonstrates that Communist ideology made the Cold War inevitable, shaped Communist strategy and the resultant structure and purpose of Communist states, and assured that Soviet and other Communist states and party strategies would be subsets of a larger Communist world strategy. Collins challenges American perception and conduct of the Cold War as essentially a conflict between Great Powers in a bipolar world, demonstrating that it was in fact a real war, with its objective to create a Communist world. He illuminates the central role of internal strategy conflicts in fractionating the Communist world, and the direct linkage between the failure of Communist world strategy and the system's collapse. This is a major synthesis that will be of interest to scholars and researchers of international Communism and security issues as well as lay readers.
Synopsis
A comprehensive examination of the origins and outcome of the "Cold War," showing how Marxist-Leninist ideology made the war inevitable.
About the Author
EDWARD M. COLLINS is former Deputy Director for Foreign Intelligence, Defense Intelligence Agency.
Table of Contents
Prologue: The Study of War
Ideological Roots: Marxism
Ideological Roots: Leninism
Leninism as World Strategy
Lenin Sounds Retreat
Stalin's Strategic Direction
The Strategy of Influence
Communist Strategy in World War II
Stalin's Postwar Offensive
The Post-Stalin Strategy Struggle
Krushchev's "Grand Strategy"
The Return to Rigidity
Military Strategy, 1964-1989
Ideological, Political, and Economic Decline
The Meltdown of the Myth
Epilogue: The Causes of the Meltdown
Notes
Bibliography
Index