Cold War 1945-1989 journal articles

General

• Bell, Coral 1996, 'A hard and bitter peace: the Cold War in retrospect', Quadrant, vol. 40, no. 3, March, pp. 18-22.
  With the release of many documents from the Soviet archives it is now possible to examine some basic questions about the Cold War, such as whether it was necessary, or inevitable, and who gained and lost during the forty-five years of the Cold War. [Abstract from Austguide]
• Downing, Taylor 2008, 'Under the mushroom cloud', History Today, vol. 58, no. 8, August, pp. 22-3.
  The Cold War has become this year's hot media topic. The author welcomes the chance to look more critically at the era of 'mutually assured destruction'. [Abstract from article]
• Dukes, Paul 2001, 'A long view of the Cold War', History Today, vol. 51, no. 1, January, pp. 29-35.
  Through most of the seond half of the twentieth century, the USA and the USSR were locked in the dangerous rivalry of the Cold War. The author takes a fresh look at the Cold War in the light of some recurring themes of the Russian and American history since the eighteenth century. [Abstract from article]
• Garnett, John 1999, 'Face to face with Armageddon', History Today, vol. 49, no. 3, March, pp. 34-40.
  The author assesses the pros and cons of 'mutual deterrence', the nuclear defence strategy that both escalated and controlled tensions between the superpowers during the Cold War. [Abstract from article]
• Gott, Richard 2006, 'The great divide', New Statesman, 23 January, pp. 53-4.
  Richard Gott on an unashamedly biased account of the US-Soviet stand-off. [Abstract from article]
• Khrushchev, Nikita 1990, 'Khrushchev's secret tapes', Time Australia, vol. 5, no. 40, 1 October, pp. 56-64.
  Ousted from power in 1964, Nikita Khrushchev became a nonperson, living out his last seven years under virtual house arrest in the village of Petrovo-Dalneye, on the outskirts of Moscow. To keep himself going but also to make sure that his side of the story survived, Khrushchev dictated hundreds of hours of reminiscences. Many of the tapes were smuggled to the West, and Little, Brown published two volumes of memoirs: Khrushchev Remembers in 1970 and Khrushchev Remembers: The Last Testament in 1974. [Abstract from article]
• Nelan, Bruce W. 1996, 'Cold light on the Cold War', Time Australia, no. 12, 18 March, pp. 78-81.
  The world is gaining a new perspective on the Cold War between the East and the West following World War II as officials of the former Soviet Union write their memoirs, and as old top-secret Soviet documents come to light. The article discusses some of the revelations behind events of the Cold War and the old Soviet leaders. [Abstract from Austguide]

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1945 - 1949

• Chua-Eoan, Howard 1995, 'War of the worlds', Time Australia, no. 32, 14 August, pp. 78-85.
  The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the culmination of a ferocious and merciless war fought in the Pacific. It was a war of intense hatred between races and civilisations which left casualties well into the millions. This article discusses in detail the Pacific war and its historical origins. [Abstract from Austguide]
• Elliott, Lawrence 1988, 'Breaking the Berlin blockade', The Reader's Digest, vol. 133, no. 796, August, pp. 80-6.
  After World War II, the city of Berlin , deep in the heart of the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany, was divided among the major victorious nations: the United States of America, Britain, France and the USSR. But the grand design for joint administration of the city was blown away by the winds of the Cold War. By early 1948, it was clear that the Soviet Union meant to drive the Western Allies out of this island of freedom. [Abstract from author]
• Fischer, Dietrich 1989, 'NATO at 40', Social Alternatives, vol. 8, no. 2, July, pp. 65-6.
  The fortieth anniversary of NATO was an appropriate time to reflect about the past and draw lessons for the future. When NATO was founded, the Soviet Union was ruled by Stalin's iron fist. The previous year Stalin had imposed several Soviet client regimes in Eastern Europe and blockaded Berlin. [Abstract from author]
• Gray, Paul 1995, 'Doomsdays', Time Australia, no. 32, 14 August, pp. 86-91.
  Within thirty days of the successful test in New Mexico, in the United States, of the world's first atomic bomb, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were incinerated. This article reveals the chain of events leading to the American decision to use the bombs, and describes the inferno and its effects on the victims. [Abstract from Austguide]
• Kann, E. 1996, 'The problem of recognising Red China (December 8, 1949)', Far Eastern Economic Review, 50th Anniversary Issue 1996, p. 42.
  Whether the United States should recognise the new communist government of China caused great debate throughout America in 1949. Here some of the arguments for and against are canvassed. [Abstract from Austguide]

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1950 - 1959

• Bennett, Jeremy 1986, 'The Hungarian revolution', The Listener, vol. 116, no. 2983, 23 October, pp. 12-13.
  Hungarians in exile prepare every October to honour those who died fighting the Russians and to remember with sadness the families and the country they left behind. [Abstract from author]
• Best, Geoffrey 2005, 'Winston Churchill, the H-Bomb and nuclear disarmament', History Today, vol. 55, no. 10, October, pp. 37-43.
  The author considers Winston Churchill's growing alarm about the possibility of nuclear war, and his efforts to ensure that its horrors never happened. [Abstract from article]
• Calder, Simon 2000, 'Cuba, still rolling along', The Geographical Magazine, vol. 72, no. 2, February, pp. 16-25.
  Cuba has suffered an American economic blockade since its communist revolution in 1959 - its infrastructure is frayed and dilapidated, although Havana remains a preserved Spanish colonial city, because funds are not available to rebuild it. The author describes conditions on the island as he journeyed through the areas in which the revolution was won. [Abstract from Austguide]
• Charles, Dan 2001, 'Strike back at the empire: interview with Richard Garwin', New Scientist, vol. 171, no. 2302, 4 August, pp. 40-3.
  One of America's leading physicists, Richard Garwin, who designed the first hydrogen bomb test, issued a scathing critique of the Bush Administration's national missile defence plan, for reasons he explained in this interview. [Abstract from Austguide]
• 'China and the passing of Stalin (March 12, 1953)', Far Eastern Economic Review, 1996, 50th Anniversary Issue 1996, p. 52.
  Stalin's death, in 1953, caused much speculation as to its effect on important world events such as the Korean War and the relationship between China and the Soviet Union. Many of these speculations from the time are recorded in this article. [Abstract from Austguide]
• Dorminey, Bruce 1998, 'In the shadow of Sputnik', The Geographical Magazine, vol. 70, no. 2, February, pp. 17-21.
  Americans were stunned when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik 1, Earth's first artificial satellite, in 1957. The launch had an immediate effect on United States defence and space policy, and led to a competitive environment for satellite development. [Abstract from Austguide]
• Elliott, Lawrence 1986, 'Hungary's brief, shining days of freedom', Reader's Digest, November, pp. 60-68.
  Hungarians poured into the streets of Budapest and fought Soviet tanks with homemade bombs and bare hands. The rebellion was crushed by Soviet perfidy and armed might, but the spirit of liberty lives on. [Abstract from article]
• 'The forgotten war: Korea 1950-1953', Studies of Society and Environment, 1997, no. 3, pp. 16-26.
  Not long after the end of World War II, Korea was divided into two zones of occupation at the 38th Parallel. The southern zone was controlled by the American forces, the northern zone came under the influence of the Soviet Union. In June 1950, North Korean forces invaded South Korea, pushing the latter's forces back to the Pusan perimeter. The United Nations decided to send a force to defend South Korea and most of the burden for the war fell on the shoulders of the United States. [Abstract from article]
• Gorelik, Gennady 1999, 'The metamorphosis of Andrei Sakharov', Scientific American, vol. 280, no. 3, March, pp. 78-83.
  A profile of the Russian physicist who helped develop their hydrogen bomb in the belief that the Soviet Union needed to remain on parity with the United States, but who came to believe that nuclear pollution was dangerous and that intellectual freedom and human rights were of ultimate importance. [Abstract from Austguide]
• Hall, Peter K. 1989, 'The Castro revolution thirty years on', Current Affairs Bulletin, vol. 66, no. 6, November, pp. 11-18.
  Dictator ex-army sergeant Batista ruled Cuba between 1933 and 1944, and from 1952 until ousted in December 1958. Less than a decade after Batista's defeat, Cuba had become a totalitarian state. This transformation was the product of circumstances, not pre-arranged strategy. [Abstract from author]
• James, Robert Rhodes 1986, 'Anthony Eden and the Suez crisis', History Today, vol. 36, no. 11, November, pp. 8-15.
  In 1956 the Suez Crisis convulsed Britain, gravely imperilled the Anglo-American alliance, brought the House of Commons to unparelleled and unrepeated chaos and nearly brought down a British Government. [Abstract from author]
• King, Frank 1996, 'Korean armistice', Far Eastern Ecnomic Review, 50th Anniversary Issue, p. 54.
  This article, written in 1953, looks at the signing of the Korean armistice and outlines how, although it may have brought a cease-fire to the war, it has not ended the hostilities between the North and South. [Abstract from Austguide]

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1960 - 1969

• Broderick, Jim 1998, 'Berlin and Cuba: cold war hotspots', History Today, vol. 48, no. 12, December, pp. 23-9.
  Jim Broderick looks at the crisis management of two moments when the spectre of nuclear war shadowed relations between the superpowers. [Abstract from article]
• Dooley, Brian 1992, 'The Cuban missile crisis - 30 years on', History Today, vol. 42, no. 10, October, pp. 6-8.
  No doubt Gobell's diaries will not be the last historical treasure plundered from the Kremlin vaults. There is also likely to be more information forthcoming on the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a better idea of exactly how close we came to war in the last week of October 1962. President Kennedy regarded the avoidance of conflict over the missiles as his finest achievement. [Abstract from author]
• Elliott, Lawrence 1986, 'Berlin: 25 years of the wall', Reader's Digest, August, pp. 79-84.
  East Germany, unable to hide this 165 kilometre obscenity, will celebrate its anniversary this month with bands and parades. But the people behind this barricade know all too well the bitter truth. [Abstract from article]
• Morrow, Lance 1985, 'Viet Nam: ten years later', Time, vol. 125, no. 15, 15 April, pp. 24-39.
  It was a conflict waged in Southeast Asia that left the 'victors' with a ravaged land. It was also a struggle fought in America, in American institutions, in the American streets and, above all, in the American conscience. [Abstract from journal]
• Nelan, Bruce W. 1997, 'Armageddon's echoes', Time Australia, no. 41, 13 October, pp. 34-5.
  The world came close to nuclear war when President Kennedy confronted Khrushchev over Soviet ballistic missiles stationed in Cuba. The crisis meetings of the National Security Council were taped, and excerpts from the transcripts given here reveal Kennedy's key advisers urging military action. [Abstract from Austguide]
• Painton, Frederick 1995, 'Opening grave wounds', Time Australia, no. 39, 2 October, p. 33.
  Disclosures that Israeli soldiers massacred Egyptian prisoners-of-war during the 1967 war have troubled Israel and added to anti-Israeli sentiment in Egypt. The unearthing of sites of mass graves in the Sinai led to confessions from a retired Israeli army general that he executed forty-nine Egyptians. Israel would not prosecute the soldiers responsible. [Abstract from Austguide]
• Simmons, Michael 2008, 'Prague's spring', History Today, vol. 58, no. 8, August, pp. 24-5.
  The author draws on many years experience of living in, and reporting from, central Europe to look back at the upheavals in Czechoslovakia of 1968. [Abstract from article]
• 'Six days of war: June 1967 and the making of the modern Middle East, by Michael B.Oren: review', The Economist, 2002, vol. 363, no. 8277, 15-21 June, p. 86.
  In the late 1960s, the Arab states still deemed Israel's creation illegitimate and demanded its reversal. All-out war seemed improbable, but low-level violence was omnipresent. Cross-border Palestinian raids, many by Yasser Arafat's new Fatah organisation, prompted even harsher Israeli reprisals. [Abstract from article]
• Webb, Ben 1993, 'The Prague Spring takes a fall', New Statesman, vol. 6, no. 267, 27 August, pp. 18-20.
  In 1968, Alexander Dubcek, the Czech party's general secretary, and the reformist leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party were summoned to the Kremlin for some lessons in communism. 'Summoned' is perhaps the wrong word. They had been abducted - held at gunpoint, incarcerated, then flown to Moscow in military aircraft - after the invasion of their country by the Soviet Union and four other members of the Warsaw Pact. [Abstract from author]

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1970 - 1979

• 'Steel fist in Kabul', Time, 1980, vol. 115, no. 1, 7 January, pp. 54-6.
  The first dramatic signs of the Soviet action appeared on Christmas morning. Moscow suddenly began a massive airlift of combat soldiers to Afghanistan. The suspected motive at the time: to help the Afghan regime put down the rebellion of conservative Muslim tribesmen. [Abstract from article]
• Stephens, Elizabeth 2008, 'Caught on the hop: the Yom Kippur War', History Today, vol. 58, no. 10, October, pp. 44-50.
  The author examines how thirty-five years ago this month the surprise invasion of Israel by Egypt and its allies started the process that led to Camp David. [Abstract from article]
• Wilson, Jim 2000, 'Red terror', Popular Mechanics, vol. 177, no. 4, April, pp. 74-7.
  Documents stolen from the KGB during the late 1970's and early 1980's and passed to the West by Soviet defector Vasili Mitrokhin in the late 1980's describes infrastructure targets in the United States which the KGB were to blow up to create disorder and hamper any US military action, and detail secret KGB caches of explosives and arms on American soil. [Abstract from Austguide]

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1980 - 1989

• Batyuk, Vladimir 1999, 'The end of the Cold War: a Russian view', History Today, vol. 49, no. 4, April, pp. 28-33.
  The author describes how the Gorbachev reforms, and the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union, changed Moscow’s view of the world. [Abstract from article]
• 'Berlin Wall', Australian Foreign Affairs and Trade, 1989, vol. 60, no. 11, November, pp. 662-8.
  Hansard for November 21 - Senator Hill (South Australia) moved that the Senate: recognise the breach in the Berlin Wall for what it was - a powerful symbol of the triumph of freedom over opression; welcome the prospects of a more democratic future for the peoples of Eastern Europe; applaud the courage of those who defied repression and intimidation in the cause of greater political and economic freedom; note the considerable uncertainty as to the future course of events in Europe; and support measures that will actively encourage genuine reform processes in Eastern Europe in a way consistent with Western security and economic interests. [Abstract from article]
• Beschloss, Michael 2004, 'The thawing of the Cold War', The Bulletin, vol. 122, no. 6425, 15 June, p. 51.
  Deceased American president Ronald Reagan played an important role in ending the Cold War by forcing the Soviet Union into an unwinnable competition against the strategic defence initiative, which led to the conciliatory reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev. [Abstract from Austguide]
• Cole, John; Mack, Andrew 1988, 'Is 'Star Wars' a threat to global security?', Current Affairs Bulletin, vol. 64, no. 9, February, pp. 24-31.
  The Strategic Defence initiative (SDI or ‘Star Wars’) was first proposed by President Reagan in a speech in March 1983. In its original form, the proposal envisaged the establishment of a space-based anti-ballistic missile system using an array of laser interceptors and other exotic weapons which would be capable of destroying incoming ballistic missiles. SDI, it was hoped, would protect the US and its allies from nuclear attack, and, in the eyes of the President, would eventually render offensive missiles obsolete. [Abstract from article]
• Jackson, James O. 1994, 'The secret plan for WWIII', Time Australia, vol. 9, no. 27, 4 July, pp. 32-7.
  Military scholars have studied a vast array of maps and exercise plans which fell into Western hands in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall. They are convinced that had diplomacy failed, war in Europe would have been sudden, nuclear and devastating for the West. Their beliefs are backed by discovery of a hair-trigger readiness by Warsaw Pact forces. [Abstract from Austguide]
• Jackson, James O. 1994, ''The last day of the past'', Time Australia, vol. 9, no. 37, 12 September, pp. 40-2.
  The official end of the Cold War occurred when the remnants of the former Soviet Army left Berlin and the Baltic states. In a ceremony to mark the event, Russian President Boris Yeltsin described it as the last day of the past. The troops returned to an uncertain future in a Russia which could not afford the kind of army it once had. [Abstract from Austguide]
• Makinda, M. 1988, 'The INF Treaty: issues, problems and implications', Current Affairs Bulletin, vol. 64, no. 8, January, pp. 14-22.
  The principal objective of arms control is to promote or maintain international security by reducing the risks of nuclear war and, where necessary, providing damage limitation. [Abstract from author]
• Ratnesar, Romesh 2007, 'Open invitation', Time, no. 24, June, p. 64.
  How Reagan's Berlin Wall speech really helped end the Cold War - and how it applies to today's enemies. [Abstract from article]
• Yablokov, Alexei 2007, 'Mikhail Gorbachev', Time, no. 42, 29 October, pp. 24-6.
  Faced with the Cold War's disastrous ecological legacy, he saw that the Soviet Union had to change its ways. [Abstract from article]

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