Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War
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"Using the Star Wars missile defense program as a magnifying glass on his presidency, Frances FitzGerald gives us a wholly original portrait of Ronald Reagan, the most puzzling president of the last half of the twentieth century.".
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"The idea that America should have an impregnable shield against nuclear weapons was Reagan's invention. His famous Star Wars speech, in which he promised us such a shield and called upon scientists to produce it, gave rise to the Strategic Defense Initiative. Reagan used his sure understanding of American mythology, history and politics to persuade the country that a perfect defense against Soviet nuclear weapons would be possible, even though the technology did not exist and was not remotely feasible.
His idea turned into a multi-billion-dollar research program. SDI played a central role in U.S.-Soviet relations at a crucial juncture in the Cold War, and in a different form it survives to this day.".
"Drawing on research, including interviews with the participants, FitzGerald offers new insights into American foreign policy in the Reagan era. She gives us portraits of major players in Reagan's administration, including George Shultz, Caspar Weinberger, Donald Regan and Paul Nitze, and she provides a radically new view of what happened at the Reagan-Gorbachev summits in Geneva, Reykjavik, Washington and Moscow."—BOOK JACKET.
Liked Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
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Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours That Ended the Cold War Shares history, Cold War, politics -
Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended Shares history, Cold War, American history -
The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex Shares history, Cold War, American history -
Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years Shares history, politics, American history
“If you want more of the same (history about american history), start with these.”
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The Fourteenth Day: JFK and the Aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis: The Secret White House Tapes
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The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation
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The Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro, and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs
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Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis
