Reagan And Gorbachev: How The Cold War Ended - Jack Matlock

With the passing of Ronald Reagan, a rash of "insider" books can be expected, many of them fluff. But Matlock, who was Reagan's advisor on Soviet and European affairs and later ambassador to the Soviet Union, writes an important and serious account of the evolving relationship between the American and Soviet leaders. He also provides a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings and turf wars that inevitably occurred within the bureaucracies on both sides. Of course, Matlock is an unabashed admirer of Reagan, which colors his view, but his assertions that Reagan was far more flexible and committed to a lessening of tensions with the Soviets than was generally perceived seem credible. Furthermore, Reagan's core belief that the cold war would end only when the Soviet Union abandoned totalitarianism has been borne out by events. Matlock's views on Gorbachev are just as interesting. Gorbachev seems to have seriously believed in Marxist tenets, yet his decent, humane instincts led him away from his more doctrinaire colleagues in the Kremlin. He is a sympathetic figure who seemed vaguely aware that he was presiding over a doomed system that had become irrelevant to the needs of the citizenry. The struggle of these two men to deal with each other as well as with some of their recalcitrant advisors is a compelling story. Jay Freeman
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