The Cold War: An International History by David S. s> Painter (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS I67 Painter, David S. ne ColdWar.An International Histogy.Routledge, London and New York, I999. x + I30 pp. Notes. Maps. Furtherreading. Index. C8.99(paperback). DAVID PAINTER has made an excellent contribution to TheMakingof the Contemporagy Worldseries. The Cold Waris a very good combination of a comprehensive yet remarkablysuccinct account of the origins, development and conclusion of the Cold War that will serve as an excellent introductory text for firstyear undergraduateswhile providing a very handy overview for any interestedreader. As the sub-titleimplies, Painterconcentrateson providingan international history, and does not seek to claim that his text relates the substantive evolution of the Cold Warto the majordomesticdevelopmentsof theprincipal protagonistsand theiralliesand associates. This book has three reallyimpressivequalities.The firstis that Painteraims to providea globalview of the Cold War,an essentialrequirementin analysing a confrontation that may not have resulted in a nuclear catastrophe yet provided a catalyst for numerous proxy wars fought across the third world that collectively claimed more than Io million lives. Throughout the book, Painter addresses the developments in the third world, relating them accurately to the complications of decolonization. One effect of this is to present a veritable global perspective on the Cold War, with sufficientdetail provided of developments in Africa and Asia, accompanied by the usually neglected significanceof LatinAmerica. The second quality is the manner in which Paintersucceeds in weaving in the relevance both of military developments and of the fraught attempts at armscontrol. The problem of the 'securitydilemma'(oneparticipant'sarming for security inducing insecurity in the other), comes through repeatedly, as does the consistent failure of the arms control process to match the speed of militarization.Both these aspectsprovide significantlessons for the future, in a world which is clearly much more complicated than that of the bi-polar Cold Warera. Finally, Painter may be writing from an American perspective but is unusuallygood at getting beyond a narrowethnocentricview that bedevils so much writingon this subject.No one would claim that the resultinganalysisis fully detached, and some scholars would take a radically different view of aspects of Painter's approach. Even so, the text provides a thoughtful and nuanced overview of a conflict that the author concludes, paraphrasing Hobbes, as 'nasty,brutishand long'. The text is interspersed with nuggets of information or analysis that encourage further thought and reading. One illustrative example is the reminder that the 'tiger economies' of East Asia certainly benefited from western spending on the Cold War and the need to ensure vibrant market economies, but they were also hugely boosted in another importantsense, by the effect of US regional spending on the Vietnam War. By the end of the I960s, for example, 20 per cent of South Korea's export earnings derived fromVietnam-related activities. There are few quibbles. The 'Suggestions for Further Reading' are appropriate,but they would have been better if annotated. While the book is i68 SEER, 8o, I, 2002 an international history and its coverage of the domestic context is limited, more attention could have been given to the protest movements of the I960s and i 980s, not leastbecause of theirrelationshipto armscontrolefforts. Overall,though, thisshortbook isreallyquitean achievement.What comes across repeatedly is the manner in which Painter manages to handle a very wide range of events, developments and processes, juggling with some complex interactions yet holding them together to produce a remarkably coherent text. Moreover, he has managed to do this in a manner that is both concentrated and thoroughlyreadable. Injust I I8 pages of text, an overview is provided that bears favourable comparison with much more substantial texts. Department ofPeace Studies PAUL ROGERS University ofBradford Markwick,Roger D. Rewriting Histogy in Soviet Russia:ThePoliticsofRevisionist Historiography, I956-74. Foreword by Donald J. Raleigh. Palgrave, Basingstoke and New York, 2000. XX + 327 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. ?50?00? STALIN'S death, followedby the revelationof his crimesat the Twentieth Party Congress, called into question the legitimacy of his system, the intellectual foundationsof which were embodied in his Short Course of Partyhistory(I937). A new cohort of scholars,many of them formerfrontoviki, began to challenge the crude dogmatism that had hitherto prevailed in the discipline and to interpretMarxism-Leninismcreatively. But the 'New Direction' movement, as it came to be called, raised delicate...