ed" (Paterson ix-x).
I expect, therefore, from these promises on the part of the author, to understand the entire Cold War phenomenon, from beginning to end, from reading this book, including how and why it started, how it went through the stages it went through, how and why it came to an end, and the actual and potential consequences of its demise.
From the historical standpoint, this book could not be more significant. The Cold War has dominated world affairs for half a century, and it is impossible to understand the world without understanding the Cold War. Its importance remains, as the post-Cold War world reverberates and will continue to reverberate for decades to come with the effects of that "war." What Paterson reports first is that
the Cold War derived from three closely intertwined sources: the conflict-ridden international system; the divergent fundamental needs, ideas, and power of the major antagonists, the United States and the Soviet Union; and the diplomatic conduct and domestic political systems---the tactics---of American and Soviet leaders (Paterson x).
Paterson is able to succinctly define the conditions which existed after World War II in terms of the international realm in which the Cold War germinated:
Two nations with quite different ideologies emerged from the rubble of World War II to claim high rank. The United States and the Soviet Union, eager to realize their universalist visions of the postwar world and to seize opportunities for extending their respective influence, tried to fill vacuums of power (Paterson 26).
There was practically no area of global concern (focusing especially on Europe) over which the two nations did not squabble "like two big dogs chewing a bone" (Paterson 26). By four years after the en
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