General Adams reflects on his experiences in the cold war, during which he served in both manned bombers and missile silos. He tells stories of famous and not-so-famous cold warriors, including some from the US Navy. Some stories are humorous; some stories are tragic. Having traveled extensively in Russia and some former Soviet Union states after retirement, General Adams tells us about his former adversaries, the Soviet cold warriors. In the process, he leaves no doubt about his respect for all who served so valiantly in the "strategic triad"-- the strategic command, the ICBM force, and the submarine Navy.
This publication reflects a compilation of excerpts from an unpublished broader treatment that recounts the nearly five decades of delicate coexistence between two nations known as the "superpowers" during the international conflict known as the "Cold War." Publication of this text fulfills one of my principal purposes in the original manuscript; that is, to pay tribute to that special breed of American heroes known as the "Cold Warriors"--The men and women who served in the strategic nuclear forces during the Cold War. Another purpose is to provide a brief parallel view of Soviet war fighters. These two opposing groups of warriors served their respective countries faithfully during those critical years of roller coaster politics, inconsistent diplomacy, and occasional lunacy.
General Adams reflects on his experiences in the cold war, during which he served in both manned bombers and missile silos. He tells stories of famous and not-so-famous cold warriors, including some from the US Navy. Some stories are humorous; some stories are tragic. Having traveled extensively in Russia and some former Soviet Union states after retirement, General Adams tells us about his former adversaries, the Soviet cold warriors. In the process, he leaves no doubt about his respect for all who served so valiantly in the "strategic triad"--the strategic command, the ICBM force, and the submarine Navy.
General Adams reflects on his experiences in the cold war, during which he served in both manned bombers and missile silos. He tells stories of famous and not-so-famous cold warriors, including some from the US Navy. Some stories are humorous; some stories are tragic. Having traveled extensively in Russia and some former Soviet Union states after retirement, General Adams tells us about his former adversaries, the Soviet cold warriors. In the process, he leaves no doubt about his respect for all who served so valiantly in the 3strategic triad4--the strategic command, the ICBM force, and the submarine Navy.
This publication reflects a compilation of excerpts from an unpublished broader treatment that recounts the nearly five decades of delicate coexistence between two nations known as the "superpowers" during the international conflict known as the "Cold War." Publication of this text fulfills one of the principal purposes in the original manuscript; that is, to pay tribute to that special breed of American heroes known as the "Cold Warriors"--the men and women who served in the strategic nuclear forces during the Cold War. Another purpose is to provide a brief parallel view of Soviet war fighters. These two opposing groups of warriors served their respective countries faithfully during those critical years of roller coaster politics, inconsistent diplomacy, and occasional lunacy.The Cold Warriors were the centerpiece of that protracted conflict; many paid the supreme price. This text attempts to provide a reasonably comprehensive essay on the Cold Warriors--both American and Soviet--their commitments, their weapon systems, their missions, and their sacrifices. It has been said that war is faceless; the Cold War represents a time when two nations created unprecedented arsenals and stood ready to attack, or be attacked by, the faceless enemy. The United States and the Soviet Union maintained that unprecedented mutual stance over a sustained period of time.There were a series of critical events during this war, including the Berlin Blockade, the invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the Korean and Cuban crises, and the war in Vietnam. All involved the Cold Warriors in one way or another. They were often called upon to transition from their primary strategic nuclear combat preparation role into totally different mission environments and war-fighting systems. These transitions required retraining and reorientation as well as relocating. Then they returned to their original strategic nuclear mission--which required still more retraining, reorientation, and relocating.From the Foreword: I can think of no one more qualified or prepared to tell the Cold War story than Maj Gen Christopher S. Adams, USAF, Retired. In the trenches as a bomber pilot and missile crew member for most of his career, he was part of that professional group expected to perform flawlessly on every mission, simulator ride, or alert tour. A tough but compassionate leader, Chris was one of the most respected, revered, and effective wing and air division commanders in the history of SAC. His leadership footprints are still visible in the halls of US Strategic Command even today. He has a rare talent for unbiased observation, an uncanny ability to cut through the chaff, and the savvy to tell a gripping story. This book, Inside the Cold War, tells that story, in my view, better than anything published to date.Contents: Chapter 1 - The Cold Warriors * Chapter 2 - The Leaders * Chapter 3 - The Weapon Systems * Chapter 4 - Fun, Games, and Serious Business * Chapter 5 - Beyond the Call * Chapter 6 - The Soviet Cold Warrior
Forfatterens oplevelser og betragtninger som højt placeret embedsmand i den amerikanske administration - her udenrigspolitikken og internationale forhold.
During the Cold War, freedom of expression was vaunted as liberal democracy’s most cherished possession—but such freedom was put in service of a hidden agenda. In The Cultural Cold War, Frances Stonor Saunders reveals the extraordinary efforts of a secret campaign in which some of the most vocal exponents of intellectual freedom in the West were working for or subsidized by the CIA—whether they knew it or not. Called "the most comprehensive account yet of the [CIA’s] activities between 1947 and 1967" by the New York Times, the book presents shocking evidence of the CIA’s undercover program of cultural interventions in Western Europe and at home, drawing together declassified documents and exclusive interviews to expose the CIA’s astonishing campaign to deploy the likes of Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Robert Lowell, George Orwell, and Jackson Pollock as weapons in the Cold War. Translated into ten languages, this classic work—now with a new preface by the author—is "a real contribution to popular understanding of the postwar period" (The Wall Street Journal), and its story of covert cultural efforts to win hearts and minds continues to be relevant today.
The author, in a letter to his grandchildren, recounts his experiences growing up under the threat of nuclear holocaust and launching a forty-year career as a Cold War Warrior. He describes his training as an Army ranger and paratrooper, and subsequent assignments to Berlin, Germany, when the Wall was built in August 1961, and as an 82nd Airborne Division company commander in the Dominican Republic in 1965. For two years he led the unglamourous but dangerous life of a combat unit advisor in Vietnam, first with a Vietnamese parachute battalion in 1966 and again in 1972 with the Vietnamese Rangers during North VietnamA[a¬a[s Easter invasion. After a capstone assignment to the Pentagon, McGushin began a second career as a national security analyst, designing modern command and control systems to counter the increasingly sophisticated Soviet threat. McGushin successfully intertwines headline-making world events with insights gained from personal experience throughout the Cold War. With the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989, followed quickly by the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the Cold War ended. Our Cold War Warriors were victorious.
“The Cold War . . . was a fight to the death,” notes Thomas C. Reed, “fought with bayonets, napalm, and high-tech weaponry of every sort—save one. It was not fought with nuclear weapons.” With global powers now engaged in cataclysmic encounters, there is no more important time for this essential, epic account of the past half century, the tense years when the world trembled At the Abyss. Written by an author who rose from military officer to administration insider, this is a vivid, unvarnished view of America’s fight against Communism, from the end of WWII to the closing of the Strategic Air Command, a work as full of human interest as history, rich characters as bloody conflict. Among the unforgettable figures who devised weaponry, dictated policy, or deviously spied and subverted: Whittaker Chambers—the translator whose book, Witness, started the hunt for bigger game: Communists in our government; Lavrenti Beria—the head of the Soviet nuclear weapons program who apparently killed Joseph Stalin; Col. Ed Hall—the leader of America’s advanced missile system, whose own brother was a Soviet spy; Adm. James Stockwell—the prisoner of war and eventual vice presidential candidate who kept his terrible secret from the Vietnamese for eight long years; Nancy Reagan—the “Queen of Hearts,” who was both loving wife and instigator of palace intrigue in her husband’s White House. From Eisenhower’s decision to beat the Russians at their own game, to the “Missile Gap” of the Kennedy Era, to Reagan’s vow to “lean on the Soviets until they go broke”—all the pivotal events of the period are portrayed in new and stunning detail with information only someone on the front lines and in backrooms could know. Yet At the Abyss is more than a riveting and comprehensive recounting. It is a cautionary tale for our time, a revelation of how, “those years . . . came to be known as the Cold War, not World War III.”
