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NB: This syllabus is a draft. Some of the readings may be changed, but the topics will remain.
The Global Cold War
HIST-GA 2771
Spring 2014
Molly Nolan
The Cold War is now "history," although some analysts believe that with its conclusion in a U.S. "victory," history itself ended. This course, however, has no such telos; it could have been called, with equal accuracy but more ambition, "World History, 1945 to the present." There are many interpretations of how best to characterize the nature of the global struggle which marked these years: Communism v. Democracy; capitalism/free markets v. socialism, Revolution v. Counter-revolution; U.S. Neo-Imperialism v. Soviet
Social Imperialism; Good v. Evil; Bad Rigid Binary Thinking v. Good Deconstructive
Fluidity. We shall try to keep the class open to these and other interpretations while at the same time coming to serious grips with the facts as well as the "facts."
For those who would like a running narrative of the Cold War, to remind you of what you may have forgotten (or never knew), try Martin Walker, The Cold War: A History (Holt,
1995). Read chapters appropriate to the week’s topic. For an alternative interpretation of the Cold War, we have ordered John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know . Read the chapters appropriate to the week’s topic.
The syllabus suggests Cold War movies that fit with various topics. You might want to rent them from the library or Netflix. They will give you a much fuller idea of what the
Cold War was about.
Books marked with asterisks have been ordered at the NYU Book Center.
Articles, documents, and chapters will be on Classes Xeroxes of some articles and chapters are on reserve in the History Department. You may xerox your own copy from the reading room, but PLEASE do so expeditiously and return the original (so to speak) to the box as soon as you can. The three most important journals specializing in the history of the Cold War are Diplomatic History, Journal of Cold War Studies and Cold
War History .
The Web: for better or worse, this is now an essential tool. US presidential libraries have on-line services; some are more useful than others. http://www.state.gov/www/sitemap.html
(official site for US State Dept. Links to volumes of Foreign Relations US on-line and other documents)

2 http://www.wilsoncenter.org/program/cold-war-international-history-project
(Cold War International History Project; crucial for documents, working papers, etc.) http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ (crucial: National Security Archives) http://www.h-net.msu.edu/ (go to H-Diplo for discussions, fora, reviews)
Requirements:
1. Students must read all assignments before class and come prepared to participate in the discussion. Class participation counts toward your grade.
2. Response papers must be done for 10 weeks of readings (You choose which 10).
These should be 1-2 pages.They must include a concise summary of the argument presented by book or essay or document and your own judgment as to its persuasive power. These must be posted on the Classes forum site by 5 pm on the Wednesday before class.
Everyone should read all response papers.
3. For the 4 weeks in which you do not do an annotated bibliography, you must prepare three questions which you would like the class to discuss. These must be posted on the classes forum site by 5 pm on the Wednesday before class.
Everyone should read the posted questions.
These do count toward your grade.
4. There will be a (circa) 15 page paper on an aspect of the cold war of your choice.
The paper can be based on primary research, on a review of the extant literature, or a judicious mix of the two. Please consult with the instructors and set your topic by the fifth week of the term.
Team or group projects are acceptable.
I.
Introduction
Odd Arne Westad, “Reviewing the Cold War,” in Reviewing the Cold War, ed. by
Westad.
Cold War History , 14:4 (2014) read articles by Jussi M. Hanhimaki, “The (really) good war? Cold War nostalgia and American foreign policy; Federico Romero, “Cold War historiography at the crossroads Federico Romero (2014) Cold War historiography at the crossroads” and Beatrice Heuser, “Looking back: a quarter of a century after the Cold
War”
II. The Cold War Order in Asia
*John Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, introduction,
Parts III and IV.
H-Diplo roundtable on Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman and the
Surrender of Japan . Vol, VII, 2 (2006)
James Peck, Washington’s China , Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2.

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NSC 48/2
NSC -124/2
Movie: Godzilla); article Yuki Tanaka, “Godzilla and the Bravo Shot: Who Created and
Killed the Monster?” Japan Focus ( http://japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=300 )
III.The Cold War Order in Europe
*Melvyn P. Leffler, For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union and the Cold War, chap. 1 .
The Kennan Long Telegram,
The Novikov Telegram
NSC 68 (mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/nsc68.htm)
The Truman Doctrine
Geir Lundestad, “Empire by Invitation,” Journal of Peace Research , 23/3, 1986.
Vladislav Zubok & Constantine Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War , prologue + chapter 1.
Frank Costigliola, “’Unceasing Pressure for Penetration”: Gender, Pathology, and
Emotion in George Kennan’s Formation of the Cold War,” Journal of American
History 83:4 (Mar., 1997):1309-1339.
Roundtable on Jeffrey Roberts, Stalin’s Wars : From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953.
Diplomatic History .
[For more interpretive essays, see Part II, American Cold War Strategy: Interpreting
NSC-68 , edited by E.R. May. An interesting symposium can be found in John Lewis
Gaddis, “The Soviet Side of the Cold War: A Symposium,” Diplomatic History ] movie: “A Foreign Affair,” Billy Wilder, 1946; read Emily Rosenberg, “Foreign Affairs after WWII: Connecting Sexual and International Politics,” Diplomatic History (DH), 18,
Winter 1994.
IV. The Cold War Economic Order
*John Dower, Embracing Defeat , Part VI;
Charles Maier, In Search of Stability , chapters. 3 “The Politics of Productivity,” and
4.”Two Postwar Orders and the Conditions of Stability”
David Ellwood, “America as a European Power,” in The Three Postwar Eras in
Comparison, Western European 1918-1945-1989, ed. by Carl Levy and Mark
Roseman
Scott Parrish and Mikhail Narinsky, “New Evidence on the Soviet Rejection of the
Marshall Plan, 1947: Two Reports, Cold War History Project
Francis Gavin, Gold, Dollars, and Power , Introduction + chs. 1-3 (pp. 1-88)
Movie: “One, Two Three” Billy Wilder
V. The Korean War

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Bruce Cumings, Child of Conflict: The Korean-American Relationship, 1943-1953, introduction.
Robert Jervis, “The Impact of the Korean War on the Cold War,” Journal of Conflict
Resolution 24:4 (December 1980).
Chen, Jian, Mao’s China and the Cold War, Chap. 3 and 4.
Sahr Conway-Lanz, “Beyond No Gun Ri: Refugees and the US Military in the Korean
War,” DH ( 29:1, January 2005 ).
Movies: “Why Korea?” (short subject) + Steel Helmet or One Minute to Midnight,
Recommended: Ron Robin, “Behavioral Codes and Truce Talks: Images of the Enemy and Expert Knowledge in the Korean Armistice Negotiations, “ in DH , 25:4, Fall
2001
VI. Crises and Stabilization, 1956
Anders Stephanson, “Fourteen Notes the very Concept of the Cold War.” In Rethinking
Geopolitics, ed. By Gearoid O Tusthail and Simon Dalby.
William Roger Lewis, The Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez and Decolonization , intro and chapters 22, 24 and 25.
Khrushchev, “Secret Speech,”
Csaba Bekes, “Cold War, Détente and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution,” http://www.coldwar.hu/html/en/publications/detente.pdf
Documents on the Hungarian Revolution. Spend a few hours reading in them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5SPXiMiv-I http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/9/1956-polish-and-hungarian-crises
The 1956 Hungarian revolution : a history in documents / compiled, edited, and introduced by Csaba Békés, Malcolm Byrne, János Rainer ; assistant editors,
József Litkei, Gregory F. Domber.
Budapest ; New York : Central European
University Press, 2002. Available electronically via Bobst http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:2190/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;idno=heb08623
Movie: ‘Spy Who Came in from the Cold”
VII. Decolonization and the Cold War in the Third World
*Westad, Odd Arne, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of
Our Times , Chapters 1,2, 4, 5, 7,8.
Connelly, Matthew. “Rethinking the Cold War and Decolonization: The Grand Strategy of the Algerian War for Independence.” International Journal of Middle
East Studies 33 (2001), p. 221 – 245.
Louis, William Roger, “The Imperialism of Decolonization,” in The Ends of British

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Imperialism.
Ervand Abrahamian, “1953 Coup in Iran,” Science and Society , 65:2 (Summer 2001):
182-215.
Grandin, Greg, “The Cold War in Latin America,” in A Companion to Post 1945
American History, ed. by John Agnew and Roy Rosenzweig .
Movie: “China Gate”
VIII. Development and the Cold War
Latham, Michael, Modernization as Ideology: American Social Science and "Nation
Building" in the Kennedy Era, excerpts
Nick Cullather, “Damming Afghanistan: Modernization in a Buffer State” Journal of
American History 89:2 (Sept. 2002).
*Nick Cullather, Hungry World
Mishra, Pankaj, “First Love,” n+1 3(fall 2005).
Movie: “The Quiet American”
IX. Culture Wars
Mary Nolan, Transatlantic Century, Chap. 8.
Susan Carruthers, Cold War Captives , Intro, Chap 1 “Open Window, Iron Curtain:
Repartriation Struggles and Cold War Origins,”
Laura Belmonte, Selling the American Way: United States Propaganda and the Cold
War, excerpts
Walter Hixson, Parting the Curtain: Propaganda, Culture and the Cold War, chapter on
Sokolniki Park
Volker Berghahn, America and the Intellectual Cold Wars in Europe. Excerpts
Frances Stoner Saunders, The Cultural Cold war: The CIA and the World of Arts and
Letters. excerpts
See the original Manchurian Candidate if you haven’t seen it before.
Other movies: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, East Side Story, any James Bond
X. Cold War Culture in Eastern Europe
A selection of articles will be chosen from the following:
Cold War Modern: Design 1945-1970, ed. By David Crowley and Jane Pavitt
Socialist Modern, edited by Paul Betts and Katherine Pence
Communism Unwrapped, edited by Paulina Bren and Mary Neuberger
XI. April 9: Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Culture

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Read around on the National Security Archive Website on the Cuban Missile Crisis and the conference held on the 40 th
anniversary of the 1962 crisis. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri
Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali, Khrushchev’s Cold War, Chap. 12 and 19
Louis Menand, “Fat Man: Herman Kahn and the nuclear Age,” The New Yorker , June 27,
2005.
Carol Cohn, “Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals,” Signs
12:4(Summer 1987
Holger Nehring and Benjamin Zieman, “Holger, “Do all paths lead to Moscow? The
NATO dual-track decision and the peace movement – a critique,” Cold War
History, 2011. movie: “Atomic Café”
XII. Remaking the Cold War in the Long 1970s. oil, debt, human rights and Islamic fundamentalism
Stephen Kotkin, “Kiss of Debt” : The East Bloc Goes Borrowing,” in Shock of the Global: The 1970s in Perspective.
Jeremy Adelman, “International Finance and Political Legitimacy: A Latin
American View of the Global Shock,” in Shock of the Global.
Trilateral Commission, Crisis of Democracy, introduction
Melvyn Leffler, For the Soul of Mankind, chap. 4.
Samuel Moyn, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History, 120-75.
Barbara Keyes, Reclaiming American Virtue: the Human Rights Revolution of the 1970s
Article on Iranian Revolution
XIII. The End of the Cold War and after in Europe
Vladimir Zubok, A Failed Empire: the Soviet Union and the Cold War from Stalin
To Gorbachev. Excerpts.
John Prados, How the Cold war Ended, excerpts.
Silvio Pons and Frederico Romero, Reinterpreting the End of the Cold War , excerpts.
Michael Cox (2014) Learning from history? From Soviet collapse to the ‘new’ Cold War,
Cold War History , 14:4, 461-485,
Mary Nolan, Transatlantic Century, chap. 12
Movie: “Good-by Lenin”
XIV. The End of the Cold War and after in Asia and Africa
Chalmers Johnson, Blowback.
Howard W. French, China’s Second Continent.

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