Beginning with World War II and ending with the collapse of the Soviet Union, this is a new account of the strategic dynamics that drove the age, with portraits of its major personalities and much fresh insight into its most crucial events. It contains much new information drawn from newly opened Soviet, East European, and Chinese archives. Now, as America once again finds itself in a global confrontation with an implacable ideological enemy, this is a story whose lessons it is vitally necessary to understand.--From publisher description.